Disadvantaged pupils less likely to earn living wage, study warns
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Pupils eligible for free school meals (FSMs) are significantly less likely than their more affluent peers to earn above the living wage by the time they reach 25, new research shows.
The study into the earnings of people aged 25 found that 23 per cent of disadvantaged pupils eligible for FSMs earn above this level of wage by 25, compared with 43.5 per cent of those not eligible.
The living wage gap is worse for girls eligible for FSMs. Just 18.2 per cent of disadvantaged girls earn above the living wage by the age of 25, compared with 27.8 per cent of boys who are eligible for FSMs.
Regional divides are also noted. While in the East of England 29.5 per cent of pupils eligible for FSMs earn above the living wage, this proportion shrinks to 19.9 per cent among the same group in the North East.
In addition, the survey found that 29.2 per cent of FSM recipients had no earnings at all at 25 years old. This is more than double the 15.4 per cent of non-recipients with no recorded earnings.
The UK living wage is currently £9.90 an hour outside of London and £11.05 in London, according to the Living Wage Foundation.
The findings have emerged in research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to look at links between poverty and earning potential.
“What our experimental analysis shows is that inequalities continue into early adult working lives for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said ONS head of integrated data analysis Neil Smith.
“We also see gender differences apparent at this early stage. Both these inequalities are seen across all parts of the country.”
National Education Union joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said the ONS’s findings “must be a wake-up call to government”.
“Over the last decade, the government has made education more difficult for these pupils through cuts to benefits, the bedroom tax, and disproportionally high cuts to funding for schools serving the most deprived,” he said.
“Class sizes in primary schools are at the highest this century and class sizes in secondary schools are at their highest since records began in 1978.
“Secondary schools with more disadvantaged pupils used to have slightly smaller class sizes than those serving the least deprived, but over the last five years that small mitigation for disadvantaged pupils has been removed.
“The pandemic has further exacerbated this disparity as pupils receiving free school meals have in general suffered greater disruption to their education.”
The ONS study on social mobility for pupils on free school meals must be a wakeup call to Govt. It's a clear indication that it has failed to achieve any ambitions to 'level up'. The prospects of disadvantaged pupils have been ignored for too long.https://t.co/33SpWKQ2GB
— National Education Union (@NEUnion) January 25, 2022
Ben Gadsby, head of policy and research at youth charity Impetus, said the ONS findings are “no surprise” adding that disadvantaged pupils “are less likely to get grades at school” and “even when they do, they are still 50 per cent more likely to be out of work in early adulthood”.
He called on ministers to ensure that “tackling disparities like these” is “the main priority” of the government's levelling-up agenda.
