Social Inequality: Age

• Being young may affect your employment chances.
• You may have restrictions on when and where you may work, minimum you can be paid and whether an employer chooses you.
• If you are 14/15 in the UK you cannot work more than 12 hours during a school week.
• If you are under 13, you cannot do paid work at all.
• 16 year olds have a minimum wage of just under £4 per hour.
• Over 21 is just over £6.50 an hour. 
• Young people are cheap labour and are used in the marketplace of work.
• At 16%, the unemployment rate of 16-24 year olds has been rising since 2004.

• 38% of discrimination cases filed after 2006 found age as the reason.
• It is said that the state pension age will keep rising, so in 2026 it will be 67. 
• It is argued that society chooses when someone is old enough to retire, rather than the person themselves.
• Those with financial security will ‘grow old’ very differently to those who do not and still have to work until they drop!
• Having so many old people today is seen as a demographic time bomb, as they will need health care, housing and more, costing money.
• However, evidence shows more old people are working post-retirement because they cannot afford not to.
• The number of workers aged 50 and over in the UK stands at 10.4 million – an increase of 2.4 million in the last decade.
• Despite this, 28% (3.5 million) of 50-64 year olds in the UK are not in work.

• There has also been a small but steady increase in the proportion of people from mid-life onwards who are in insecure work.
• These are defined as those who are low-paid self-employed and people who are in some form of temporary employment.
• Currently, 8% of 45-54 year olds, 10% of 55-64 year olds and 20% of 65-74 year  olds are in insecure work. (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2018, Is Britain Fairer?).

• The percentage of employees aged 16 to 20 years in quality work was low, at 22%.
• This figure nearly doubled to 53% for employees aged 21 to 24 years.
• Between the ages of 25 and 64 years, the percentage of employees in quality work remained fairly stable at around 70%, then increased significantly for employees aged 65 years or over, to 77%.  
• The ONS report Job quality indicators in the UK – hours, pay and contracts: 2018 suggests that this difference can be attributed predominantly to a sharp decrease of employees in low-pay jobs between the ages of 16 to 20 years and 21 to 24 years and again to the next age groups.
• Younger people with less experience and in comparatively new entry-level jobs were more likely to be on lower pay or the minimum wage.

• There are currently 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK- that is almost a third of all children.
• In the UK, 63% of children living in poverty are in a family where someone works.
• Poverty will effect a child’s life chances- education, health, community they live in.
• For many, growing up in poverty means being cold, hungry, often ill and struggling to get to school.
• This is only seen to increase.
• Evidence shows that child poverty is regional- different areas have different levels of child poverty.
• Out of the top 20 constituencies where child poverty is highest, three of them are in Birmingham- such as areas like Ladywood, Hodge Hill and Hall Green

• 16% of pensioners in the UK live in poverty, according to Age UK.
• Fuel poverty is a big concern- as older people have to spend more than a tenth of their money on their fuel bill.
• This can mean older people have to choose between heating their house or eating a meal, as it is such a financial strain.
• However, statistics from poverty.org show that while some pensioners do like in low-income households, they are not the poorest in society.
• Those who are of working age, single and with dependants are more likely to suffer the worst of poverty.
• In the UK, 1.9 million (16%) people aged 65 and over live in relative poverty.
• Single women, ethnic minorities and the over 80s  are more likely to live in relative poverty in later life.
• Worryingly, progress made on pensioner poverty in the 1990s is beginning to reverse.
• Individuals are said to be experiencing persistent poverty if they have relative low income in the current year, as well as at least two of the three preceding years.

• Both older people and young people are likely to face different kinds of disadvantages in terms of housing.
• Moreover, social class and ethnicity make a significant difference to people chances of gaining good housing.
• In every age group poorer people and those from disadvantaged minority ethnic groups are more likely to live in poorer housing with more insecure forms of tenure.  
• One in five homes (4.7 million) did not meet the Decent Homes Standard in 2016.
• Poor housing in later life is more likely to affect older people from BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds partly because they are more likely to be renters in later life, with 29% of BAME households privately renting, compared to 17% of White households.
• In general, people from BAME backgrounds are more likely to live in deprived neighbourhoods with the oldest and poorest quality housing.

• Home ownership has collapsed for adults in their prime working age, according to official figures that show those in their mid-30s to mid-40s are three times more likely to rent than 20 years ago.
• The government statistics agency said home ownership had become increasingly concentrated among people over the age of 65.
• Almost three-quarters of adults in the generation that includes baby boomers born after the second world war own their own homes outright, up from just over half in 1993.
• Younger people also find it harder than pervious generations to gain access to social housing.
• Since the launch of the scheme in 1979 the proportion of council properties in Britain has slumped from 33.2% to only 17.6% in 2017.
• The ONS said that if the declining home ownership trend continued for the current generation of 35- to 44-year-olds, older people in future would be more likely to live in private rented accommodation than today.

• Gender is a factor in whether youth suffers inequality.
• Globally, young females suffer specific inequality that males do not.
• This includes FGM, gender based violence, early marriage and physical and emotional damage.
• Other areas that create inequality for female youth include employment and education.
• Countries such as Pakistan state education is for all, but statistics show that there is a huge inequality in gender and schooling.
• Activists such as Malala Yousafzai continue to fight for females to gain education equality.
• There are other rights gendered according to culture, such as right to work, go out without a chaperone or even drive. 

• Statistics show there is a difference experience among the elderly when looking at gender, wealth, culture, religion and nationality, as there is with youth.
• Elderly females are likely to be worse off than elderly males, as they have a lower income.

• According to Grundy and Holt (2001) the burden of ill-health is carried by older people.
• Two thirds of the population with a limiting long-term illness or disability are aged 55 and over.
• More than half of people over 65 have at least two chronic health conditions, and many have health  problems that affect their daily lives.
• Unsurprisingly, experiences and perceptions of ageing depend on social status.
• For example, one in five (20%) people in routine occupations in England say that age often prevents them from doing the things they would like to do compared with just 7% of those in professional occupations.
• The proportion of men and women from poorer backgrounds with chronic heart disease, diabetes, respiratory illness, arthritis and depression is much higher than among better-off men and women. 
• The poorest women are more than four times as likely as the wealthiest women to have CHD.
• The proportion of people who struggle with ‘activities of daily living’ – basic routine activities like eating, bathing and dressing – rises with age.

• Ideas about getting old vary from culture to culture, showing age is socially constructed.
• Some countries still live in a gerontocracy- where society is led by older leaders, for example Saudi Arabia and Kenya, where adolescent status is prolonged until 30.
• Kagan did a study in a Colombian village (1980) and found that the old remained socially and economically active and were valued and respected.
• In other societies, the elderly are a burden for the rest of society when they are unable to move with the lifestyle changes that take place. 
• Gentleman (2009) said about care homes that although care may be good, the lack of visits from relatives makes it an unpleasant experience.
• She states that even though staff are caring and kind, the unspoken function of the home is that elderly people are left by their families to die.
• A young Iraqi nurse said he found this a culture shock, as Iraq families look after their elderly.
• In the Islamic world, there are hardly any ‘old people’s homes’ as caring for old parents is seen as a blessing, honour and opportunity for great spiritual growth. 

• Different cultures and communities have different socially constructed ideas.
• In some tribes, boys as young as three are given weapons to hunt with, while a child in the UK cannot be convicted of a crime until the age of ten.
• Religion and culture dictate the treatment of youth.
• These differences can be linked to responsibilities of the child, but can also be linked to poverty, war and exploitation of the weak.
• For example, in West Africa, girls are seen to be able to care for siblings and fetch water at four, then be able to produce milk and butter and sell it at the market by 6.
• Whereas in Canada, among Inuit families, children are seen as unable to understand certain situations, and they must be treated with tolerance and leniency.

• Being young or old is not a clear divider of society, other factors such as gender, culture, class, religion must be looked at also.
• Therefore, a postmodernist view is required- a view that does not look for one theory to explain age inequality.
• Hepworth and Featherstone (1990) state the groups of youth and elderly are far too simplistic.
• Marsh and Keating (2006) noted different cultures have different values of different age groups.
• Clearly, gender, social class, nationality, ethnicity, religion and actual age are amongst other factors which affect someone’s experience of youth or old age.
• As age inequality is socially constructed, it changes due to different factors in society.

• Age discrimination is rife in Britain according to a new UCL study which shows that one in four over 50s report being unfairly treated in shops, restaurants and hospitals.
• Ageism also appeared to be linked to poorer health among those it affected, the study shows, with reported victims of age discrimination more likely to suffer health problems, or develop them over time.
• The findings have been published in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which surveyed more than 7,500 people over the age of 50 and followed their progress for six years.
• A total of 1,943 of the respondents said they had been affected by age discrimination.
• ave been discriminated against at work because they were considered ‘too young’.
• Eighty-nine per cent of 45-54 year olds said they have been discriminated against at work for being ‘too old’.
• Another study by the think tank Resolution Foundation (2019) found that people in the UK are happiest at 16 and 70 years old, with their wellbeing taking a dive for the majority of their working lives.
• The study of seven years of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data also suggested that anxiety levels tend to rise between their mid-20s and their mid-50s.

• There is a clear gap between old and young due to their ability to use technology.
• Causes problems for employment- older people less comfortable using technology.
• Can stop the old and young understanding each other.
• Dowd (1986) ‘strangers in their own land’. This is because:

1. Unable to cope with changes such as online banking, social media or answering text messages.

2. Marks a cultural separation of young and old.

• However, growing group of ‘silver surfers’.
• More post-65 accessing digital technology.
• New generations grow up with the skills so digital gap closes.