Author: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk

Men in their early 40s have the longest commutes

Men in their early 40s have the longest commutes in the UK, spending more than 67 minutes on average getting to and from work every day, according to a new TUC analysis of official figures published today (Friday) to coincide with the end of Commute Smart Week, organised by Work Wise UK.

The TUC analysis shows that while commute times for men and women in their late teens and twenties are fairly similar, a huge gender divide starts to appear at 30, which never goes away.

Commute times for women peak in their late 20s at 54.6 minutes and then start to fall as they get older. Journey times for men however, continue to rise until they reach their early 40s, when they spend an average of 67.2 minutes commuting to and from work. Men in their early 40s spend an extra 17.4 minutes to travelling to work compared to women of the same age.

The TUC believes the main reason for this gender divide is the impact of childcare responsibilities, with many women in their 30s moving jobs to be closer to home so they can pick their children up from nursery and school. Meanwhile, many dads take on jobs even further from home in order to increase their earnings to cope with the high cost of childcare.

People living in London have by far the longest commutes, with men in their early 40s spending more than 81 minutes getting to and from work. Teenagers in the East Midlands have the shortest commutes in the country at just 29 minutes.

The TUC analysis shows that commute times have started to creep up again after a short fall during the recession. The average daily commute is now nearly five minutes longer than it was a decade ago, with workers spending an extra 4.5 days a year travelling to and from work.

The TUC believes that new technology and the changing nature of work could allow many more people to work flexibly or from home, and so avoid many miserable hours spent commuting.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Most people expect their earnings to rise as they get older. Unfortunately the length of time spent getting to and from work increases too.

“Long commutes are not always practical for those doing the nursery and school run, which is why mums tend to work closer to home. This move often involves them taking a huge pay cut too.

“But cutting the commute needn’t mean cutting pay too. New technologies such as super-fast broadband and skype should mean more workers are able to change the way they work, or work from home occasionally. This could reduce at least some of their costly and miserable rush-hour journeys.”

Work Wise UK’s Chief Executive Phil Flaxton said: “Now the season is changing, Commute Smart Week reminds us that we have an opportunity to change our attitudes and thinking in relation to work activities.

“Are we really prepared to move into winter with the same anticipated long and often disrupted commutes? Or are we going to change the way we work by commuting less with the aid of internet and mobile technologies.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Average daily commuting times (round trip), 2003–2012

Year	Length of daily commute (minutes)
2003	50.0
2006	52.4
2009	52.0
2012	54.6

Commute times by age and gender

Age	Male	Female
16-19	41.8	38.4
20-24	51.0	50.0
25-29	58.6	54.6
30-34	62.6	54.4
35-39	65.2	52.4
40-44	67.2	49.8
45-49	63.6	49.6
50-54	60.6	46.4
55-59	59.4	44.4
60-64	57.6	42
All over 16	60.2	49.2

Commute times by region and age

Age band Region	16-19	20-24	25-29	30-34	35-39	40-44	45-49	50-54	55-59	60-64	All ages
North East	47.2	40.8	49.4	52.2	42.4	47.6	47.2	46.4	48.8	43.8	46.8
North West	33.8	49.0	54.0	61.2	57.8	54.8	49.4	52.0	47.4	44.0	51.8
Yorkshire and Humber	41.8	50.4	51.8	50.4	54.4	55.4	49.2	52.2	45.2	47.4	50.6
East Midlands	29.0	39.6	49.2	53.6	57.4	49.0	55.2	48.0	48.0	43.8	48.6
West Midlands	44.2	46.8	54.6	47.0	51.0	50.6	54.6	51.4	44.8	41.4	49.6
Eastern	38.2	56.2	48.2	63.2	68.2	64.0	57.2	55.0	61.0	54.0	58.6
London	66.8	77.8	79.8	80.8	76.6	81.2	77.8	73.0	69.8	66.4	77.2
South East	38.6	50.6	57.8	56.6	62.2	61.0	63.0	54.6	58.0	58.8	57.4
South West	34.6	39.8	43.8	49.2	46.8	53.4	55.4	45.4	45.0	49.2	46.8
UK	40.0	50.6	56.6	58.6	59.0	58.4	56.2	53.0	51.6	50.4	54.6

Source: Labour Force Survey

- The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- More information about Commute Smart week is available at www.workwiseuk.org

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen   T: 020 7467 1248    M: 07778 158175    E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Phil Flaxton (Work Wise UK)    M: 07831 112639       E: phil@workwiseuk.org

Commenting on the latest employment figures published today (Wednesday) by the Office for National Statistics, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Britain’s workforce is getting larger but poorer.

“It is encouraging that more jobs are being created but job quality is falling and close to a 20-year low. A record number of people are stuck in part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time work, while real wages continue to shrink fast despite falling inflation.

“We need better jobs and healthier pay rises to tackle to the living standards crisis and ensure that the full benefits of recovery reach working people.”

According to the TUC’s jobs quality index launched this morning, job quality has fallen again and is close to its lowest point in the last 20-years.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The TUC job quality index is available here www.tuc.org.uk/economic-issues/labour-market/job-quality-close-20-year-low-despite-rising-employment-rates and will be updated at www.touchstoneblog.org.uk

- The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen   T: 020 7467 1248    M: 07778 158175    E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Gibson   T: 020 7467 1337    M: 07900 910624     E: egibson@tuc.org.uk

Record levels of under-employment and the longest real wage squeeze in over a century have left job quality close to a 20-year low, despite the recent rise in employment, according to the TUC’s job quality index published today (Wednesday).

The TUC job quality index, published ahead of the latest employment figures later this morning, tracks pay rises against the rising cost of living and the number of people who can’t find enough hours in their current job. The index uses ONS data on wage growth, under-employment and inflation from 1992 onwards.

The index shows that employment rates and job quality have broadly tracked each other for most of the last 20 years. Employment and job quality both rose sharply between 1995 and 2001, stayed constant until mid-2006 and fell sharply during the recession.

However the index shows that the link between rising employment and increasing job quality has broken down in recent years. While the employment rate is back to its 2009 level (though it is still someway short of its pre-recession health), job quality has remained close to a 20-year low.

The TUC welcomes rising employment levels but is concerned about the quality of jobs being created. With under-employment at a record high of 1.45m and workers suffering the longest real wage squeeze in over a century, the TUC fears many people are feeling little or no benefit from the economic recovery.

The fact that job quality has remained close to an historic low raises serious questions about the kind of recovery we are experiencing, says the TUC. It is vital that the recovery doesn’t just create any old jobs, but the right kind of employment with decent pay rises for all.

The index follows recent analysis by the Office for National Statistics which found that real household disposable incomes have barely risen in the last four years despite the economy growing by over £60bn. A recent TUC report The Low Pay Recovery also found that 80 per cent of net job creation since June 2010 had taken place in industries where the average wage is less than £8 per hour.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “A growing economy is supposed to improve people’s living standards through better jobs and higher wages. But too few workers have felt these benefits during the recent recovery.

“Job creation – whatever the quality – is better than rising unemployment. But for too many people this simply means moving from the hardship of unemployment into working poverty.

“Working people deserve a fair share of the benefits of recovery. Otherwise, there is a risk that the poorly paid, insecure contracts that were seen as a pragmatic response to recession will become a permanent feature of the labour market.

“We need to see start seeing healthier pay rises and more high quality jobs created. Otherwise, this joyless recovery is going to pass most people by.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Job quality and employment rate growth since 1992

Date	Job quality index	Employment rate (per cent)	Date	Job quality index	Employment rate (per cent)
July 1992	100.0	68.9	April 2009	96.0	71.1
July 1993	98.8	68.4	July 2009	99.5	70.7
July 1994	97.8	69	Oct 2009	98.4	70.6
July 1995	95.7	69.6	Jan 2010	94.4	70.3
July 1996	98.2	70	April 2010	95.6	70.4
July 1997	97.9	70.9	July 2010	93.4	70.7
July 1998	99.6	71.6	Oct 2010	94.1	70.5
July 1999	100.8	72	Jan 2011	93.9	70.7
July 2000	98.7	72.7	April 2011	93.0	70.7
July 2001	102.4	72.6	July 2011	93.9	70.3
July 2002	101.1	72.7	Oct 2011	92.6	70.3
July 2003	98.6	72.7	Jan 2012	92.9	70.5
July 2004	100.5	72.8	April 2012	93.4	70.8
Jul 2005	100.6	73	July 2012	93.6	71.3
July 2006	100.5	73	Oct 2012	94.1	71.5
July 2007	99.3	72.6	Jan 2013	93.4	71.4
July 2008	97.4	72.5	April 2013	94.0	71.4
Oct 2008	97.5	72.3	July 2013	93.6	71.7
Jan 2009	100.3	71.8

Source: ONS. Job quality index base July 1992=100

- The full job quality data for every month since 1992 is available from the press office.

- According to the latest labour market statistics, under-employment is at its highest level since records began in 1992 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_327398.pdf.

- The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen   T: 020 7467 1248    M: 07778 158175    E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Gibson   T: 020 7467 1337    M: 07900 910624     E: egibson@tuc.org.uk

Women working full-time still earn almost £5,000 a year less than men, though the pay gap in some jobs is three times bigger, according to a TUC analysis of official figures published to mark Equal Pay Day today (Thursday).

Equal Pay Day marks the point at which women working full-time effectively stop earning as they are paid 15 per cent less per hour than men working full-time. But in certain professions the gender pay gap is much wider, says the TUC.

According to the research, female health professionals have the biggest pay gap at 31 per cent, which works out at £16,000 a year. A key reason for the size of the pay gap in health is the earnings of the best-paid professionals. Top male professionals in health earn nearly £50 an hour, twice as much as top earning women who earn £24.67 an hour.

Women working in culture, media and sport experience the next biggest pay gap at 27.5 per cent – which works out at £10,000 a year – while women working in manufacturing occupations earn nearly 24 per cent less than men.

Women earn less than men in 32 of the 35 major occupations classified by the Office for National Statistics. The three major occupations where women earn more than men – transport drivers, electricians and agricultural workers – are all male dominated. Fewer than 50,000 women are employed in these sectors, compared to 1.5 million men.

The gender pay gap across the private sector is 19.9 per cent, far higher than the 13.6 per cent pay gap in the public sector.

The gender pay gap is even bigger for women working part-time, who earn 35 per cent less per hour than men working full-time. Equal Pay Day for women working part-time was back on 27 August.

The TUC believes that as four decades of equal pay legislation have only halved – rather than eradicated – the gender pay gap, a tougher approach is needed to stop millions of workers losing out on pay and career opportunities, simply because of their gender.

One of the reasons for the gender pay gap is the lack of transparency in pay systems that allow companies to pay female employees less than their male colleagues, without staff even being aware of it, says the TUC. Publishing annual gender pay gap information and conducting regular pay audits would enable companies to identify any gender pay gaps, and take action to close them.

However, with just one in 100 companies voluntarily publishing equal pay information, the TUC wants the government to legislate and make audits compulsory additions to annual company reports.

More senior level part-time jobs are also needed to help women continue their careers after having children, says the TUC. Too many women are forced to trade down their jobs and abandon their careers just to find working hours that can fit around their childcare arrangements.

The TUC wants the government to boost the availability of more senior part-time jobs by encouraging employers to advertise all jobs on a flexible basis where possible. Ministers could take the initiative by making it a requirement for all public sector job vacancies, says the TUC.

The government should also strengthen the right to request flexible working by removing the six month qualifying period and making it available to employees on the day they start a new job.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “It is a huge injustice that women are still earning on average almost £5,000 a year less than men. This pay gap can add up to hundreds of thousands over the course of a woman’s career.

“The gender pay gap, which continues despite decades of girls outperforming boys at school and university, is also a huge economic failure. It is crazy that employers are missing out on billions of pounds worth of women’s talent, skills and experience every year.

“Four decades on from the Equal Pay Act, it’s clear we need to take a tougher approach so that future generations of women don’t suffer the same penalties.

“One simple way would be to force companies to be more transparent about how they pay staff. Pay transparency and pay audits would give employers the evidence they need to finally take closing the pay gap seriously.”

Charlie Woodworth of the Fawcett Society said: “It is scandalous that in modern Britain women can expect to take home just 85p for every pound men earn. The persistent gap in pay shows just how far we still have to go when it comes to achieving equality between the sexes.

“In recent years, progress on closing the gap has begun to slow. As austerity continues to bite we now face the very real danger that the gap will widen, as more and more women find themselves forced out of the public sector and onto the dole or into the private sector workforce – where the pay gap stands at 20 per cent.

“The labour market is experiencing dramatic change, and women are bearing the brunt of cuts to jobs. If the government doesn’t address this growing problem, we risk returning to a much more male-dominated workforce, with record numbers of women unemployed, those in work typically earning less, and the gap in pay between women and men beginning to grow instead of shrink.”

Emma Stewart, co-founder of the Timewise Foundation, says: “At present many mothers – and increasing numbers of fathers – feel they have no choice but to ‘trade down’ because of their need for flexibility and accept low paying part-time jobs, with little opportunity to progress.

“The good news is that there is a solution, and it’s right in front of us. More employers should be encouraged to advertise their good quality, part-time jobs, on the open market.

“A number of trailblazing employers, both large and small, are already beginning to open up their vacancies to the wider market, and ‘think part time’ before designing a new role. They benefit by attracting and retaining incredible talent. The more we publicise the actions of such employers, and talk about successful part-time working arrangements, the better.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Occupations with the biggest gender pay gaps

Occupation	Hourly pay, men	Hourly pay, women	Gender pay gap (per cent)	Gender pay gap (per hour)	Gender pay gap (per year)
Health professionals	£26.54	£18.32	31.0%	£8.22	£16,029
Culture, media and sports occupations	£18.62	£13.50	27.5%	£5.12	£9,984
Process, plant and machine operatives	£10.79	£8.23	23.7%	£2.56	£4,992
Managers, directors and senior officials	£26.14	£20.21	22.7%	£5.93	£11,564
Business and public service associate professionals	£20.39	£16.05	21.3%	£4.34	£8,463
Corporate managers and directors	£27.51	£21.78	20.8%	£5.73	£11,174
Process, plant and machine operatives	£10.53	£8.56	18.7%	£1.97	£3,842
Skilled trades occupations	£12.03	£10.00	16.9%	£2.03	£3,959
Associate professional and technical occupations	£18.12	£15.20	16.1%	£2.92	£5,694
All employees	£16.50	£14.05	14.8%	£2.45	£4,778

- Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2012

- The gender pay gap for all 35 major occupations is available from the TUC press office.

- All gender pay gap figures have been calculated using mean hourly pay, excluding overtime. The annual figures have been calculated by multiplying the hourly pay gap by 37.5 (average weekly hours for a full-time worker) and then again by 52.

- The Timewise Foundation was setup to help people find good quality flexible working, through jobs and recruitment, careers advice and policy work. More information is available at http://timewisefoundation.org.uk

- The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen   T: 020 7467 1248    M: 07778 158175    E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk

A bold rise in the national minimum wage (NMW) is needed next year to ease the living standards squeeze on the lowest paid workers, the TUC has warned today (Wednesday) in its submission to the Low Pay Commission (LPC).

The warning comes as the TUC has calculated that the annual salary of a full-time worker on the minimum wage would be £770 higher this year, had the NMW kept pace with price rises since 2007.

The TUC, which will present evidence to the LPC later this morning on next year’s minimum wage rates, says that the government must increase the minimum wage by more than the rate of inflation or average earnings growth to avoid putting even more financial strain on hard-working low-wage families.

Despite inflation currently running at 2.7 per cent, the government last month announced a minimum wage increase of just 1.9 per cent per cent for adults and 1 per cent for younger people. These small rises have meant a real-terms pay cut for around a million minimum wage workers, says the TUC.

The TUC will argue that with higher household spending power so vital towards building a sustainable economic recovery, too low an increase in the minimum wage would limit demand and put more strain on the public finances. When employers pay decent wages, government spending on in-work benefits and tax credits falls, whilst revenues are boosted as income tax and national insurance receipts rise.

The LPC expects that the 1.9 per cent increase in the minimum wage last month will generate an extra £183 million for the Treasury.

The TUC’s view is that as the long overdue economic recovery strengthens in future years, increases in the minimum wage should become more generous. A bigger increase in the minimum wage in 2014 is also needed to restore what has been ‘lost’ in recent years.

The TUC has strong concerns about the application and enforcement of the minimum wage, including the misuse of interns, the continued abuse of workers providing social care and the rapid growth in the use of zero hours contracts as a means to evade paying the minimum wage. The TUC wants the government to address these issues urgently.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The recent minimum wage increase in October was actually a real-terms pay cut for hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers.

“With hard-working families all around the UK facing cuts to their benefits and tax credits, the minimum wage is becoming even more of a vital lifeline, and at the very least must keep pace with inflation and earnings.

“As the economic recovery strengthens there will be more capacity to increase minimum wage rates in 2014, and the government has a real chance to be more ambitious about raising the rates. Thousands of employers can easily afford to pay more than the legal minimum too, and should pay a living wage.

“It is also time to look at why certain sectors get stuck with so many low paid jobs and to try to help those industries to improve hourly pay rates.

“In addition, the TUC is also concerned about the rapid growth of zero hours contracts which effectively get employers around paying the minimum wage, and the continued misuse of interns and social care workers. The government must tackle this abuse now – there must be no hiding place for cheating employers.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

- The LPC is currently considering the rates to apply from 1 October 2014. The Commission will report to the government in February and the government will announce its decision in the Spring. As part of its evidence gathering programme, the Commission holds a two-day oral evidence session in November each year to quiz the TUC, CBI and others on their views on the development of the minimum wage in the following year.

- The LPC reports that the adult rate NMW has increased from £5.52 to £6.31 since 2007 (+14.3 per cent). The ONS CPI index of prices has increased by 21 per cent during the same period. If the 2007 NMW had increased by 21 per cent it would now be £6.68 ­– 37p higher than the actual rate in October 2013. A 40-hour per week full-time employee paid for 52 weeks a year is therefore £770 per week worse off than they would have been had the NMW kept pace with the CPI measure of inflation (0.37 x 40 x 52 = £769.60).

- The LPC estimate of savings to the Exchequer from this year’s NMW increase is provided in its 2013 report on p170 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/226822/National_minimum_wage_Low_Pay_Commission_report_2013.pdf.

- The TUC’s LPC submission is available under embargo at www.tuc.org.uk/LPCsubmission2013  - The current minimum rates (from 1 October 2013):

£6.31 – adult aged 21 or above

£5.03 – aged 18-20

£3.72 – aged 16-17 (16-year-olds above statutory school leaving age only)

£2.68 – apprentices aged under 19, or over 19 but still in the first twelve months of an apprenticeship. All other apprentices must be paid the relevant age-based rate.

 - The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

- The Pay and Work Rights Helpline offers further advice on the NMW, and how it can be enforced:  https://www.gov.uk/pay-and-work-rights-helpline ; 0800 917 2368

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen   T: 020 7467 1248    M: 07778 158175    E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady will warn that households are being excluded from the benefits of economic growth when she addresses the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class) annual conference in central London today (Saturday).

Frances will warn that one of the golden rules of economics –growth raises incomes and living standards – has been broken in recent years. She will warn that while the economy has grown by over £60bn in the last four years, real household disposable incomes across the UK have grown by barely £1bn. Once population growth is taken into account, disposable incomes have actually fallen by nearly £500 per person.

Frances will warn that unless the link between growth and rising incomes is restored, the recovery will be meaningless to the vast majority of people across Britain. She will argue that high quality jobs and fair pay rises are the only sustainable way to ensure that working people get a share of the gains of growth that they’ve been denied so far.

Frances O’Grady will say: “After three years of austerity-induced economic stagnation, the UK is finally back in recovery mode.

“But frankly this recovery has passed most people by. The economy may have grown by £60bn in the last four years, but households are nearly £500 worse off.

“It’s no wonder that polling published yesterday by Class found that four in five people do not feel that they are better off as a result of the improving economy.

“The historic link between economic growth and rising incomes has been broken under this government. Households are being excluded from the benefits of growth. Unless this changes the recovery will be meaningless to the vast majority of people across Britain.

“The government has belatedly woken up to our cost of living crisis. But ministers are desperately short of solutions because they’re still not prepared to challenge the ‘market knows best’ ideology that has somehow survived the biggest global crash since the 1930s.

“Take soaring energy bills – a flashpoint for Britain’s cost of living crisis. Every day we get a fresh government announcement on how they’ll tackle sky high bills. Customers have been told to wear jumpers, another toothless review is planned and some MPs have even decided to turn a cost-of-living issue into a rally against green jobs and investment.

“But no minister is prepared to take on the main reason for soaring bills – the excessive profits of energy companies.

“On Tuesday, we’ll be marking the 20^th anniversary of another great British market failure – the privatisation of the railways. We know from the East Coast mainline that re-nationalisation is not only popular with passengers, it works too. Despite this, the East Coast franchise is being handed back to a private company – great news for shareholders but bad news for passengers.

“But there is an alternative to this failed economic model. Firstly, we need to address the chronic imbalance between capital and labour. Living wage week, which starts on Monday, should provide a stark reminder that in low-pay Britain one in five workers earns less than the living wage. We need a concerted effort to raise workers’ wages, from encouraging employers to pay the living wage to introducing new wage councils. And of course we need more of the most effective way of all to boost pay – collective bargaining.

“New high-quality jobs are equally important. The government hails its job creation but fails to point out that four in five new jobs are in industries paying less than £8 an hour on average. We need smart intervention from the state to back growing industries and provide the investment spur they need.

“After years of recession and stagnation, a low-pay recovery and a return to business as usual may be good enough for the government. But it’s not good enough for working people who have suffered job losses, real pay cuts and seen their children’s career prospects threatened.

“That’s why we need a radical economic alternative. That’s what Britain is crying out for.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The TUC has used figures from the Office for National Statistics to calculate that between June 2009 and June 2013 the economy grew by £60.8bn (4.2 per cent). Over that same period real household disposable incomes grew by £1.2bn, while real household disposable incomes per head fell by £484.

- Frances is addressing the Class conference at 10am on Saturday 2 November. The conference is talking place at TUC headquarters, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS. Media enquires about the conference should be addressed to Ellie O’Hagan in the Class press office on 020 7611 2569 or ellie.ohagan@classonline.org.uk.

- The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk

Next Thursday (7 November) is Equal Pay Day – the day on which women effectively stop being paid for the year because of the gender pay gap.

The date for Equal Pay Day – which will be marked by the TUC and the Fawcett Society, as well as other unions and campaigning organisations – is set by the latest pay statistics, which show that women working full-time earn 15 per cent less per hour (excluding overtime) than men working full-time.

The gender pay gap for women working part-time is even greater at 35.6 per cent. For the UK’s six million female part-time workers, they effectively stop being paid on 27 August.

The TUC will mark Equal Pay Day with an analysis looking at the size of the gender pay in occupations across the workforce. Its analysis of official figures will show that in many professions the gender pay gap is far greater than 15 per cent.

If you’d like an embargoed copy of the TUC’s equal pay analysis, or further information on Equal Pay Day, please contact the TUC press office.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk

Commenting on new figures published today (Wednesday) by the Office for National Statistics, which show that real household disposable income has not risen despite GDP growth of 4.2 per cent since 2009, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Today’s figures confirm that households are not benefitting from the recovery.

“Growth matters because it raises people’s living standards. But this basic rule has been broken under an austerity-obsessed government. Most people will not feel as if we are in recovery if all the gains from growth are hogged by the same old elites, at the cost of ordinary families.

“The ONS report also shows the scale of our cost of living crisis, with people now having to spend more than a third of their incomes on essentials as they suffer the longest wage squeeze in over a century.

“The government must wake up and start tackling our cost of living crisis. It can start by taking on the excessive profits of the big energy firms that have pushed energy bills up so much that households are now spending more on gas and electricity than they are on filling up the car.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The ONS Economic Review is available at www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/elmr/economic-review/november-2013/art-novemberer.html#tab-Introduction

- The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk

Commenting on the latest GDP figures published today (Friday) by the Office for National Statistics – which show that the economy grew by 0.8 percentage points in the third quarter of 2013 – TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“It’s good that growth is back, but the real test for the government is whether the proceeds will be fairly shared and used to tackle the living standards crisis. If the recovery only flows to the better off residents of London and the South East then today’s news will make little difference to most people.

“While any growth is better than none, the economy is still 2.5 per cent smaller than it was before the recession, with manufacturing 8.9 per cent below peak and construction faring even worse. There is little to boast about in an unbalanced recovery, delayed by three years, combined with the longest decline in living standards since the nineteenth century.

“On top of this there are real worries about whether these trends are sustainable given that so much seems to be based on house price inflation and increased borrowing by consumers. The last time we tried that it did not end well.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen   T: 020 7467 1248    M: 07778 158175    E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk

Britain is losing the global race on green growth, a failure that could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady will warn today (Monday) as she addresses the TUC’s annual climate change conference in central London.

Frances’ warning comes as the government’s green credentials are being questioned by unions, businesses and even its own ministers.

The TUC is concerned that the government has failed to commit to a new carbon reduction target in the Energy Bill – now going through the House of Lords – despite widespread support across industry. Some MPs are now wrongly blaming green subsidies, which provide vital investment to a growing low carbon industry, for soaring energy bills.

Critics of green subsidies are being rather less vocal about the large forthcoming fracking subsidies or the soaring profits that the big six energy companies are making at the expense of hard-pressed consumers, Frances will say.

She will add that it’s worth remembering that fossil fuels also receive important subsidies and renewables receive far less in comparison.

New analysis by the TUC – published to coincide with its conference Green Growth: No Turning Back has found that gas and electricity prices have increased by 152 per cent over the last decade, four times faster than inflation (38 per cent), even before the latest rises by SSE and British Gas are taken into account.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady will say: “The government has been guilty of dithering over two of the biggest challenges we face today – our cost of living crisis and the need to tackle climate change by reducing carbon emissions.

“In the last decade, gas and electricity bills have increased four times faster than inflation, with another spike due this autumn as SSE and British have just hiked bills. With people suffering the longest real wage squeeze in over a century these price rises have come into sharp focus.

“Caught on the back foot by Ed Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy bills, some MPs are now trying to twist this cost of living issue into one that fits their anti-green agenda.

“Consumers want action from politicians to tackle the excess profits and undeserved bonuses of the big six energy companies. Instead, green investment is now being criticised, often by the same people who champion tax breaks for fracking, recently announced by the Chancellor.

“Politicians’ timidity on green investment is costing us all dear. Cutting carbon emissions should be a great opportunity for the UK to create new apprenticeships and jobs, and rejuvenate our manufacturing sector. Moving towards a low-carbon economy could generate sustainable growth outside London and the South East.

“But we are losing the global race for green growth. While competitors such as France and Germany press ahead with active support from their governments, in the UK ministers have shown little appetite for supporting low-carbon business.

“Not only are green energy subsidies under threat, but the green investment bank has been left woefully short of funds and is unable to make use of low interest rates to borrow to invest. This inaction will become a drag on growth and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Without further investment, our increasingly antiquated high carbon energy sector will also mean even higher energy bills and increased dependency on overseas supplies.

“It’s time for the government to stop dithering and make a firm commitment towards reducing carbon emissions. It can start by taking a firmer grip on an energy sector that is very good at generating short-term profits, but which is so far failing to meet our longer term low-carbon energy needs.”

Frances is one of several speakers at Green Growth: No Turning Back which takes place later today at the TUC’s central London headquarters. The conference will debate the role of government in tackling rising energy prices and investing in green energy and technology. It will also ask what a future low-carbon economy would mean for jobs, workplaces and commuting, as well as energy bills.

Other guest speakers at the conference include:

• Sir David King, current special representative for climate change to the Foreign Secretary
• Professor Julia Slingo, chief scientist at the Met Office
• John Ashton, co-founder of E3G, fellow of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College and former climate envoy to the Foreign Secretary (2006-2012)
• Iain Wright MP, shadow minister for competitiveness and enterprise
• Andy Atkins, Executive Director at Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth Executive Director Andy Atkins said: “Decarbonising the UK’s energy system is critical to tacking climate change and key to the country’s economic prosperity.

“A target to achieve carbon-free power by 2030 will get us off the hook of increasingly expensive fossil fuels and create hundreds of thousands of jobs. The Government must grasp this opportunity when Lords vote on a target in the Energy Bill next week.

“But we need bold leadership and a decent set of policies - with a focus on helping people permanently lower their energy bills through a proper programme of home insulation.”

The conference takes place between 10am and 4pm at Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- Journalists wishing to attend should contact the TUC press office.

- The TUC’s campaign plan can be downloaded from www.tuc.org.uk/campaignplan

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen   T: 020 7467 1248    M: 07778 158175    E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth    T: 020 7467 1372    M: 07717 531150     E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk