...UK’s statutory minimum wage would reduce unemployment and “get Britain working”. Discuss the merits of this statement referring to appropriate academic research/evidence. The national minimum wage (NMW) introduced in 1999 is the minimum amount the government expects employers to pay their employees per hour at work. At the present time (2012) the UK’s NMW is £6.19 per hour for employees over the age of 21 years. It sets a price floor in order to balance out the fairness of the work carried out and to ensure there is pay equality between staff. Unemployment involves people who are not currently in a job but are actively looking for work. There has been a high amount of unemployment in the UK with % of people out of work. It has been suggested that there is a link between the NWM and unemployment levels. This is that lowering the NMW would lead to more employment and get people into work. This is on the basis that the NMW is fixed under the equilibrium wage which labour supply and labour demand meet. However with the NMW posed over this equilibrium this leads to a decrease in employment. The graph (Smith 2003) shows that if the NMW is above the equilibrium then there is a surplus of labour demand. This is because firms decrease employment and demand for labour increases. Therefore, lowering the NMW below the equilibrium would lead to an increase in demand for labour with firms hiring more employees and so decreasing unemployment levels. The link between wages and unemployment...
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...Economics Revision Chapter 1:Nature of work and leisure and trends in employment and earnings Earnings | Wages plus overtime pay, bonuses and commission | Economically inactive | Working age people who are neither in employment, nor unemployed, and so are not part of the labour force | Labour force participation rate | The proportion of working age people who are economically active | G8 | The group of major economies consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and USA | Employment rate | The proportion of working age people who are in work | Part-time workers | People working less than 30 hours a week | Temporary work | Casual work, seasonal work, working for employment agencies, fixed – period contract work | Homeworking | Working either at home or in different places away from the central office, production or distribution facilities, using the home as a base | Teleworking | Working using a telephone and a computer at home, in an internet café or a train or plane | Occupational segregation | The dominance of an occupation by one gender | Primary sector | The first stage of production, agriculture | Secondary sector | The second stage of production, processing raw materials | Tertiary sector | The third stage of production, providing services | Tax wedge | The gap between what employers pay for labour & what workers receive in disposable income | Outsourcing | Subcontracting part of the production...
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...BRITISH UNEMPLOYMENT AND MONETARY POLICY Dr Sushil Wadhwani Member, Monetary Policy Committee Bank of England Speech to be delivered to the Society of Business Economists on 2 December 1999. I am extremely grateful to Damon Clark, Joanne Cutler, Mark Dean, John Henderson and Duncan Melville for their help and advice on this work. I have also learnt a great deal by talking to William Brown, Richard Layard and Stephen Nickell. Ian Bond, Phil Evans, Paul Fisher, Mike Joyce, DeAnne Julius, Mervyn King and John Vickers provided me with helpful comments on an earlier version. The views expressed in this paper are personal and do not necessarily reflect any views held by either the Monetary Policy Committee or the Bank of England. 2 INTRODUCTION Many economists use a notion like the so-called ‘natural’ rate of unemployment (or the allied concept of the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment – the NAIRU, hereafter) in thinking about the labour market. Of course, the NAIRU is extremely difficult to measure, and, often, there is significant disagreement about where it is at a given moment in time. As I discuss below (in Section 2), since 1992, British economic forecasters have displayed a tendency to over-predict the level of unemployment, while simultaneously also over-predicting inflation. It is likely that these forecast errors have come from having been too gloomy about the NAIRU. In Section 3, I discuss econometric evidence suggesting that, in the 1990s...
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...to the National Minimum Wage (compensation, enforcement and powers of investigation) as well as new regulations aimed at better enforcing the NMW in relation to agency workers• Part Three considers the strengths and weaknesses of the so called “ASLEF Amendment” introduced in response to a European Court of Human Rights ruling that unions should be free to determine their own rules. http://www.ier.org.uk/publications/employment-act-2008 | Summary of the Employment Act 2008The Bill contains proposals to reform existing law covering industrial relations and employment protection. Key areas * Repeals the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004 which were intended to reduce employment litigation, but had unintended consequences in practice * The statutory dispute resolution procedures will be replaced by a new non-regulatory system; a package of measures to encourage early/informal resolution of employment disputes possibly with increased support for the involvement of Acas * Clarifies and strengthens the enforcement framework for the National Minimum Wage * Clarifies and strengthens employment agency standards to address some of the concerns about vulnerable workers * Changes the relevant labour law to ensure compliance with the European Court of Human Rights judgement in Aslef v UK. This requires clearer rights for trade unions to determine their membership, after domestic courts held that trade unions could not lawfully expel British National Party...
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...This act applies to direct and indirect discriminations. For this act, direct discrimination means a less qualified man could be given a job over a more qualified woman. Indirect discrimination means when a job has requirements that one sex is unable to perform like the person must be six feet tall. Very few women are this tall. Sometimes jobs do not have to comply with this act if they are performed by a particular sex like a youth worker specialising in helping young women may have to be a female. If a group is underrepresented, positive steps can be made to encourage that particular group such as offering free management courses to women in particular organisation because there were not enough women. National Minimum Wage The national minimum wage (nwm) is a minimum amount per hour that most workers in the UK are entitled to be...
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...Unit 5 – Certificate of Human Resource Practice 1.1 - Describe the internal and external factors that impact on the employment relationship There are many factors that can impact on the employment relationship, both internal and external. External Factors - The availability of alternative jobs is a external factor of the labour market and can impact the employment relationship due to staff being head hunted by other companies, they know that they can easily find a new job should they not be enjoying their current job role. - The general economic climate is another external factor however it relates to the product market. This can affect the employment relationship as there will be a drop in demand of products should the economic climate be low resulting in less work, meaning redundancies may be made when there is less money coming in and organisations can no longer afford to keep all of their staff. However should there be a rise in demand of products due to the economic climate being strong then this will result in more work. - A positive external factor is social impact. Where by the retirement age is increasing each year, organisations area able to retain a older workforce resulting in a higher retention of specialised knowledge and skills. Internal Factors - The size of the organisation will impact on the employment relationship as the larger the organisation the greater room there is for career progression, however the smaller the organisation there...
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...Research Paper The experience of ethnic minority workers in the hotel and catering industry: Routes to support and advice on workplace problems Ref: 03/06 2006 Prepared by: Tessa Wright and Anna Pollert (Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University) Funded by Acas and the European Social Fund For any further information on this study, or other aspects of the Acas Research and Evaluation programme, please telephone 020 7210 3673 or email research@acas.org.uk Acas research publications can be found at http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=405 ISBN 0-9554830-0-X ISBN 978-0-9554830-0-4 The Experience of Ethnic Minority Workers in the Hotel and Catering Industry: Routes to Support and Advice on Workplace Problems Ref: 03/06 2006 Prepared by: Tessa Wright and Anna Pollert (Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University) Funded by Acas and the European Social Fund Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the European Social Fund and Acas for providing financial support to the project, and Acas staff also for their guidance during the project, in particular Margaret Fox, Anthony Gould and Gill Dix. The project benefited greatly from the contributions of the Project Advisory Group, both in suggestions made on methodology, access and content at meetings, and help in accessing research participants. Many individuals and organisations helped us in gaining access to workers to interview...
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...There are many things Tesco’s can do to improve their operations ethically. Tesco’s can differ the way they operate, by becoming greener. They should show more keen interest and be environmentally conscious by having green policies, less packaging, recyclable bins for the public to use and charge for bags; encourage people to reuse their bags. Moreover all their stores should have sustainable environmental technology such as solar panels, to reduce the amount of electricity used (saving energy), which will reduce their carbon footprint too. Likewise they can join originations like “Friends of the Earth, Environmentalism and Green Peace” etc. Create more jobs Tax increase to 20% “the government hopes the rise in VAT will raise £13bn a year, but it is predicted to hit retail sales”. Due to this consumers are worried about job losses and how they will be able live their lives with all these cuts. But on the other hand “SUPERMARKETS led the way in announcing tens of thousands of new jobs at a growth summit hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street”. Furthermore “Tesco expects to hire another 9,000 staff, the Co-op 1,000 and Asda 15,000 retail apprenticeships”, which is very ethical. Moreover to be ethical, Tesco’s must deliver and create jobs for “9,000” people as stated. This will help people who are jobless, as well as who have lost their jobs and hopefully “lead to an increase in employment in the next five years”. Paying more to suppliers Tesco’s...
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...also to David Coats and Paul Marginson, for comments and suggestions. I take sole responsibility for the views expressed. 2 Justice in the workplace Executive summary The goal of improving fairness in the workplace has been central to UK public policy since 1997. For rather longer, companies have spoken of employee empowerment through such things as teamwork. Much has been done in both areas, but major concerns remain. In relation to fairness, employee rights give entitlements, but these rights also need to be meaningful and effective. In the workplace, the take-up of empowerment initiatives remains limited, and on some dimensions the extent of empowerment has in fact been falling. Initiatives in many areas, ranging from the National Minimum Wage to partnership deals, have the potential to improve workplace governance, which in turn contributes to productive efficiency. But this potential is often weak in practice, because of the absence of a...
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...Pay and Reward | 4 | Organisational Culture | 4 | External Factors Which Impact On Employment Relationships | 4 | Economy | 4 | Technological Changes | 4 | Reasons to Determine an Individual’s Employment Status | 5 | Examples of Employment Status | 5 | Worker | 5 | Fixed term | 5 | Self Employed and Contractors | 5 | Employee Rights During the Employment Relationship | 6 | Work-Life Balance | 6 | Holidays | 6 | Rest Periods | 6 | Working hours | 6 | Night Working | 7 | Maternity Leave | 7 | Paternity leave | 7 | Adoption Leave | 8 | Special Leave | 8 | Reasons Why Employees Should be Treated Fairly In Relation To Pay | 9 | Employee Satisfaction | 9 | Recruitment & Retention | 9 | National Minimum Wage | 9 | Main Points of Equalities Legislation | 10 | Direct Discrimination | 10 | Indirect Discrimination | 11 | Harrasment | 11 | Victimisation | 11 | The Concept of the Psychological Contract | 12 | Types of Psychological Contracts | 12 | Issues To Be Addressed At The Termination Of The Employment Relationship | 13 | Fair and Unfair Dismissal | 13 | The Importance of the Exit Interview to Both Parties | 14 | Key Stages of Redundancy | 14 | Planning | 14 | Identifying the Selection Pool | 15 | Seeking Volunteers | 15 | Consultation | 15 | Making the Selection | 15 | Notification & Appeals | 15 | Alternative Employment | 15 | Redundancy Payments | 15 | Counselling and Support | 16 | Survivor...
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...HEFP Economics CW3 Sean Philip Lim, Group I As youth unemployment increases back towards the psychological one million mark as of March 2013 (Evans, 2013), there has been considerable debate among the public and the government on the reasons behind increasing youth unemployment. This essay will aim to decipher the reasons behind high youth unemployment figures and its repercussions on the state. It will accomplish this by first defining and explaining the types of unemployment and the ways in which it is measured. It will then discuss the plausible reasons followed by evaluating the effectiveness of solutions that are currently being implemented or proposed. Lastly, it will provide a value judgement on the consequences that might occur should high youth unemployment remain. Unemployment is defined as the ‘number of jobless people who want to work, are available to work, and are actively seeking employment’ (Gillespie, 2007, p.347). As of January 2013, unemployment stood at 7.8% (BBC, 2013) marking a downward trend since October 2011. Within unemployment, there is youth unemployment, defined as the ‘percentage of unemployed young people (16-24) in relation to every young person who is active in the labour market’ (ONS, 2013). As of March 2013, youth unemployment stood at 21.2%, a rising trend since August 2004 as depicted in figure 1 (Evans, 2013). Source: The Guardian, 2013 Figure 1 There are two methods of measuring unemployment...
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...Describe the internal and external factors to consider when planning the human resource requirements of an organisation. Internal factors for consideration: A business has many factors to take into consideration when planning requirements of an organisation and many are factors rooted within the company. This means that they have to look at the profile of the organisation and get an understanding of the demographic, skill capacity and intentions of the workforce, whilst also getting to understand the intentions of the company and the direction of which they want to go. Firstly as said it would be to look at the demographic of the company, and with this the company will look at the age scope of the workforce, gender, ethnicity and even disabilities. The latter of the two is mostly to make sure the company is within rules of legislation as there is certain requirements that a company has to meet. Age is monitored to try and adapt and change the profile of a company to keep up to date with current trends and needs, this is as if there is an ageing workforce they may firstly be out of date with current affairs but also the company would have to look at retirement and the long term. Therefore it would be of the best interest of a company to have a greater range of ages within the company as it combines experience with innovation, creativity and enthusiasm, but it also means that the company will not lose large sections of the workforce at a time and makes the long term running...
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...market in an economy to work optimally. There are five main types of unemployment, which are real wage unemployment, demand deficient unemployment, frictional unemployment, structural unemployment and hidden unemployment. On the other hand, this essay will show the different between Keynesian and Monetarist economists. There are including two main policies in Keynesian economist which are reflationary and deflationary policies. Also, there are two main policies which are supply-side and money supply policies of monetarist policies. Firstly, according to real wage unemployment which also called classical unemployment. Real wage unemployment is a form of disequilibrium unemployment that occurs when real wages for jobs are forced above the market clearing level. Traditionally, trade unions and wages councils are seen as the institutions causing this type of unemployment although the importance of trade unions in the UK labour market has diminished significantly over recent years and this has not stopped unemployment reaching nearly three million twice in the last twenty years. Classical unemployment is thought to be the result of real wages being above their market clearing level leading to an excess supply of labour. Some economists believe that the introduction of the national minimum wage may create some classical unemployment in industries where average wage rates are closer to the NMW level and where international competition from low-labour cost producers is severe. Secondly...
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...9780199203055_001_030_CH01.qxd 11/1/07 15:14 Page 1 Introduction: ‘business’ and its ‘environment’ Paul Wetherly and Dorron Otter Contents The approach of this book—themes and issues 2 What is business? 4 Business and the problem of scarcity 5 The private sector—on closer inspection 7 28 Review and discussion questions 29 Assignments 30 Further reading 30 4 The private sector of business Case study: ‘UK plc’ Other sectors of business—the public sector and the third sector 10 Online resources 30 A simple model of business in its environment— transforming inputs into outputs 13 References 30 Conceptualizing the environment of business 15 Interaction between business and the environment—responding, influencing and choosing 17 The nature of the internal environment 20 Types of organization structure 21 Environmental analysis 24 Summary 27 01 9780199203055_001_030_CH01.qxd 2 X 11/1/07 15:14 Page 2 Introduction Learning objectives When you have completed this chapter you will able to: l Recognize different uses of the term business, and understand the different forms of business in terms of, for example, private, public and not-for-profit organizations l Describe the complexity of the external environment in which business operates and explain the idea of environmental uniqueness l Understand the nature of the...
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...Majesty’s Treasury 8 July 2015 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 8 July 2015 HC 264 © Crown copyright 2015 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at public.enquiries@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk Print ISBN 9781474122733 Web ISBN 9781474122740 ID 25061566 07/15 PU1820 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Printed in the UK by the Williams Lea Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office The Budget report is presented pursuant to section 2 of the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011 and in accordance with the Charter for Budget Responsibility. The Budget report, combined with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and fiscal outlook, will constitute part of the government’s assessment under section 5 of the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993 that will form the basis of the government’s submissions to the European Commission...
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