摘要:This paper examines changes in earnings inequality and mobility between 1978/9
and 2005/6 using a unique dataset that includes both those with secure patterns
of employment and a wider group who experience periods without earnings. It
finds significant increases in annual earnings inequality for both male and
female employees. On most measures this is greater for men. When wider
inequality is measured including periods of no earnings, inequality for men
increases and for women it falls as employment among women increased. It finds
little long-range mobility. There is some evidence of greater short-range upward
mobility but also greater movement from the lowest earning decile since 1997/98.
More sophisticated measures of mobility suggest falling mobility for men through
the 1980s and 1990s but some greater mobility since 2002. For women there has
been lower mobility and less variation over time. Increases in employment for
women have led to more equalising mobility.