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Research Institute for Social Sciences
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Latest Inaugural Lecture
Professor Carole Thornley delivered the latest lecture in the University's series of professorial Inaugural Lectures for 2011 – 2012.
In her lecture, "Why are the low-paid always with us?", she explained that mature capitalist economies are organised into pyramid hierarchies of earnings, income and wealth, which spill into political and economic power and social status. Earnings are an important flow into broader income and wealth inequalities. The system is viewed by some as a meritocracy (nascent or real) – of ability, of skills, of returns to risk and investment. Yet the distribution of earnings remains remarkably invariant, and parts of society are stubbornly 'losers'.
The lecture addressed the complex causation behind low pay and challenges a number of conventional views: that the low-paid are always 'them' not 'us' and are small in number, that they are concentrated in the private sector, that low-paid jobs equate readily with low ability or skill, and that the system itself is 'rational' or 'meritocratic'. The lecture drew upon large-scale surveys and field research in the health service and local government, as well as a range of statistical sources, classic writing on equalities and personal experience. It also assessed the impact of the National Minimum Wage and realities of life for the 'working poor'.
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