Publications

Read our annual report, WISERD Insight, featuring our key areas of activity, income profile, funding and engagement activities in 2021.

Introduction The arrival of Covid-19 to the UK in early 2020 led to rapid and far-reaching changes in the way we live our lives. ‘Lockdown’ led to school closures and working from home became the norm for many workers. And while most shops and businesses closed, ‘key’ workers and services experienced unprecedented pressures. For the…

A forthcoming volume in the Civil Society Book Series with Policy Press.

Highlights We explore disability-related labour market inequality in the UK during COVID-19. We estimate COVID-19 work-related risk factors and changes in outcomes. Disabled workers face greater COVID-19 economic and health risks pre-pandemic. Disability gaps in employment and pay exhibit minimal change one year post-pandemic. Disabled workers have a markedly larger rise in being temporarily away…

This Research Note presents new estimates of trade union membership derived for detailed geographical areas across Great Britain. Analysis reveals the wide variations in union density that exist both across the country and within particular regions.  Over the period 2000-2019, union density is shown to vary between 9% in Kensington and Chelsea to 54% in…

This report, based on 42 interviews with workers, trade unionists and other stakeholders, examines the phenomena of low-paid and precarious work in Sheffield. It focuses on the factors driving the prevalence of such work (including the links with welfare reform), the experiences of workers in seven distinct employment sectors, as well as trade union responses…

Summary of presentations at the WISERD and Department for Work and Pensions Areas of Research Interest (ARI) Workshop on the 23rd and 25th March 2021.

IZA World of Labor, 2021, 253 In Europe, about one in eight people of working age report having a disability; that is, a long-term limiting health condition. Despite the introduction of a range of legislative and policy initiatives designed to eliminate discrimination and facilitate retention of and entry into work, disability is associated with substantial and…

In this study we quantify the size and drivers of the contemporary gender pay gap among medical doctors employed in the UK public sector. In using nationally representative data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, we make comparisons to doctors employed in the private sector, as well as to other public sector medical…

Spatial variance in union membership has been attributed to the favourable attitudes that persist in areas with an historical legacy of trade unionism. Within the United Kingdom, villages and towns located in areas once dominated by coalmining remain among the strongest and most durable bases for the trade union movement. This article empirically examines the…