The gap between rich and poor has increased dramatically over the last 25 years and the incomes of the bottom 10 per cent were no higher in 1991 than in 1967 (see Goodman and Webb (1994b, this issue)). Wages are an important part of household income and the trends in the dispersion of wages...

Since the 1980s, there has been increased interest among unions and two opposition parties in the possibility of introducing a national minimum wage (NMW). The central argument for a minimum wage is a social justice one: a minimum wage is deemed necessary to prevent some employers exploiting...

This paper uses microeconomic data from the British Household Panel and General Household Surveys to describe how the distribution of pay differs between the public and private sectors in 1983 and in the early 1990s. Separate analyses by gender and education group reveal that it is women and...