Trends in Social Inequality (20 Markers)

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Ethnic minorities have higher levels of poverty e.g. 1/2 Of Child minorities live under a low income house.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• Minimum wage exists which all ethnic minorities will be paid as a minimum - legislation restricts underpayment - Most agree minimum wage is acceptable.
• 2nd Generation immigrants/ethnic minorities are now performing better financially. 

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Ethnic Minorities face CV discrimination whereby chances indicate that white individuals are more likely to get interviews & jobs - E.G: Only 1 in 16 BAME.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• There is a small difference between average salaries when looking at different ethnicities - On average minorities earn £18,000 whereas white earn £19,000.
• Similarly with income, the 2nd generation are now outperforming their predecessors as they are achieving better salaries.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Minorities such as Chinese perform better in education - they have achieved more degrees than white people showing an inequality in edducational attaintments.
• Opposing this however: White people are moving up class more and quicker than minorities.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• Once again, 2nd generation minorities and immigrants are performing better than their parents as they are starting to achieve more and move a class higher. 

EVIDENCE FOR:

• The difference in wealth is significant between minorities and white individuals - White on average is £221,000 whereas minorities such as Bangladesh only have £15,000.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• Understanding wealth is a subjective matter - difficult to measure as it's hard to understand what counts and it's value.
• There is many indivuduals from non-white backgrounds who are rich.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• As minorites fall under a lower class than white indivudals there healthcare is worse.
• 50% of Chinese/White & Pakistani own their own homes showing these groups perform much better than other ethnic minorities.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• In Britain the NHS exists which allows everyone access to free healthcare no matter what class/status/wealth you are associated with.
• With housing crisises occuring - home ownership is declining for all groups.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Have to look at child poverty levels - around 3.5 million children within the UK are in poverty/ low income households - this accounts for 1/3 of all children in UK.
• Looking at pensioners - 1.6 million are in poverty/ low income.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• A majority of children aren't in poverty (2/3 aren't) plus benefit and taxation schemes exist whereby parents reccieve financial incentives for children (Child Tax Benefit).
• Pensioners also get incentives to aid in their standards of living such as bus passes and OAP discounts which allow them to remain members of society.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• In many employment situations, younger workers are passed over for having a 'lack of experience' so older workers get the job instead.
• For the elderly: 71% believe technology is a barrier for them as it restricts them from work.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• The inequalities existing are only true for the two extremes (Young & Old) - most workers are middle aged who don't face workplace discrimination based on their age. 
• The Discrimination Act exists.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• State pensions do not help elderly survive after retirement as they'll have a poor quality of living and suffer to afford basic neccesities - need to be involved in a private pension scheme.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• Could be argued that age isn't a useful factor for determining an indivduals wealth status as there is a significant variance - need to look at gender and class as they are more useful for showing wealth inequality.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Need a focus on gender as part of age and social mobility - as women get older they are judged on their appearance and how it deteriates whereas men are judged on power and status which increases as they age.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• This type of social mobility is only evident in UK society as many societies value their elders such as many African countries where elders hold power - values are socially constructed creating a culture towards the old individuals. 

EVIDENCE FOR:

• There is a clear Digital Generation Gap within society whereby younger people can use digital technology to meet life chances whereas old people struggle to meet them as much of daily life turns digital.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• However statistics reveal that there is a development with the amount of older indivduals using technology with just under 20% of adults not going online and the amount of elderly people using tablets tripling. 

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Need to look at the gender pay gap which still exists in contemporary UK - men are getting paid on average 20% more then women for the same job.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• Discrimination laws exist in the UK which aim to eradicate the pay gap and allow employers to be taken to court if their staff feel there is an unfair payment scheme in place - helps eliminate the pay gay and removes discrmination.
• Liberal feminism would argue there has been a march of progress - society will develop.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Glass Ceiling in UK society = Women can see the top jobs but can't get them.
• Concrete Ceiling = Can't get the top jobs and there is barriers in the way to get to top.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• Concrete Ceiling is disappareaing with women taking roles in high profile careers such as Theresa May becoming the Priminister of the UK - A job that has been dominated by men since it's creation.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Women's wealth is considerably less than mens with property and pension wealth being the worse type - women's pensions on average sit around £9000 which compared with mens is 3 times lower than theirs.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• This wealt discrepancy can be pinned on the gender pay gap which is now decreasing therefore wealth levels should become more equal between the genders.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Much research into social mobility is based around males occupation with the Goldthorpe Scale ignoring women fully - makes it hard to track how women are performing.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• New scales such as The Surrey Scale have been since developed which have a specific focus towards womens social mobility - although they still show discrimation towards women it raises awareness about inequality between the genders and aids in progress.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• For employment and jobs, women do alot worse in these life chances as they aren't as successful in acquring employment to gratify the life chance - males take priority.
• Women do however do better in terms of education and health as educational attaintments prove women achieve higher and women are more likely to attend the doctors - this doesn't transfer to the workplace as women still get lesser jobs.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• As society progresses, as are women in life chances compared to men with equality in employment increasing and home ownership increasing showing that women are now adopting traditional values that would be associated with men i.e. full time employment.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• Income levels are significant between classes with the top 1% earning £900,000 whereas the bottom 10% earning just £9000 - these figures are continually increasing creating even more inequality between members of society.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• In UK Society - progressive tax is a thing whereby money is increasingly taken dependant upon an individuals incoome (This is called income tax) with anyone who earns over £40,000 being taxed a large percentage at 40%.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• There is a few factors that employment brings: Financial reward, status, power, opportunities and job satisfaction. These factors are all aquired more by the upper class who do significantly better for example a doctors status vs waste disposal.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• The factors that help class a job as 'good' are subejctive as peoples opinions vary - what one person views as satifactory for a job may be different to how another indivdual views it.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• 4 Types of Wealth exist: Property/ Physical/ Financial and Pension.
• The upper class have significantly more of this wealth as they inherit through generations and can swap one type of wealth for another E.G: Swap financial wealth (money) to purchase property/land.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• Although as Inheritance tax exists any wealth above the threshold will be taxed at 40% thus limiting the upper class from becoming even richer although for signicantly wealthy individuals, the inheritance tax won't impact them majorly.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• 2 Types of Social Mobility Exist:
• Intergenerational: Moving Class across generations i.e. 1st = Lower then 2nd = Middle etc.
• Intragenerational: Individually moving class within a lifespan.
• Intergenerational used to exist but stopped in the 90's when manual jobs declined.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• Recession and austerity is ending.

EVIDENCE FOR:

• The 5 Life Chances are: Long & Happy Life / Education / Employment / Own Home / Holidays.
• Upper class do significantly better in all of these life chances as they have the disposable income to indulge in better options such as private school and private healthcare.
• The lower class don't have access to this lifestyle.

EVIDENCE AGAINST:

• Although educational statistics reveal that on average: private schools don't achieve better educational attainments compared to public schools.
• Everyone has access to the NHS meaning healthcare across classes is good - only benefit for upper class is a faster service.