School of Social Policy

Do we still care about inequality?Karen Rowlingson, Michael Orton and Eleanor Taylor

Income inequality in the UK rose dramatically after 1979 and now stands at historically high levels. It isthe subject of increasing attention and there is growing evidence that inequality has negative effectson health, crime, happiness, social mobility and social cohesion. Understanding the public’s attitudesto inequality and redistribution, and how they may alter over the current ‘period of austerity’ isimportant for policy makers and commentators alike. So what does the British public think aboutinequality and redistribution? This summary reviews the findings from an ESRC-funded study whichanalysed data from the 2009 British Social Attitudes survey. Key findings are:

There is high – and growing –concern about income inequality with78% thinking that the gap betweenthose with high incomes and lowincomes is too large, up from 73% in2004

Income inequality is seen as havingnegative impacts, with 63% sayingthat large differences in people’sincomes contribute to socialproblems like crime and only 27%saying that large differences inpeople’s incomes are necessary forBritain’s prosperity

The majority of the public believe thegovernment should act to reduceincome inequality: 57% say it is theresponsibility of the government toreduce the differences in incomebetween people with high incomesand those with low incomes (only19% disagree)

Slightly more people supportredistribution than oppose it: 36%say that government shouldredistribute income from the better offto the less well off; 34% disagree;27% neither agree nor disagree.Support for redistribution hasincreased since 2004, and is at thesame level as in 1999

Support for how to reduce incomeinequality depends upon howquestions are asked - there issupport for redistributive policies, butless when words like ‘redistribution’,‘poverty’ and ‘poor’ are used directly.

The public are particularly supportiveof reducing inequality through bettereducation or training opportunities(supported by 62%). Over half of thepublic also support reducing taxes forthose on low incomes andincreasing the minimum wage

Do we still care about incomeinequality?Income inequality in the UK rosedramatically after 1979 and now standsat historically high levels. It is thesubject of increasing attention andthere is growing evidence thatinequality has negative effects onhealth, crime , happiness, socialmobility and social cohesion.Understanding the public’s attitudes toinequality and redistribution, and howthey may alter over the current ‘period ofausterity’ is important for policy makersand commentators alike.

Of course, that is not to say thatpoliticians will necessarily engage withpublic opinion, either to build policyaround it or indeed to challenge it.However, understanding how peoplefeel about inequality and redistributionand how that altered during theprevious administration, will be asound starting point for monitoring howthey may change in coming years.

So what does the British public thinkabout inequality and redistribution? TheBritish Social Attitudes survey includesa number of questions which allow usto explore these issues. Some of thesequestions have been askedperiodically since 1987. Others are partof a new set of questions asked in2009, which were designed tounderstand in more depth how thepublic perceives income inequality. The

Do we still care about inequality?Karen Rowlingson, Michael Orton and Eleanor Taylor

2009 survey on which this study wasbased, captures people’s views a yearinto recession and in the final year ofthe Labour government. Recentanalysis of the data found that amajority of the British public saw thegap between high and low incomes astoo large. For example,

78% think the gap between thosewith high incomes and low incomesis too large, up from 73% in 2004

73% say differences in income aretoo large, up from 63% in 2004

60% agree that working people donot get their fair share of the nation’swealth, up from 53% in 2004

One of the reasons that people appearconcerned about income inequality isthat it is seen as having a negativerather than a positive impact:

63% say large differences inpeople’s incomes contributes tosocial problems like crime

Only 27% say large differences inpeople’s incomes are necessary forBritain’s prosperity

For these reasons, the public believethe government should act to reduceincome inequality:

57% say it is the responsibility of thegovernment to reduce the differencesin income between people with highincomes and those with low incomes(only 19% disagree)

Only a minority positively supportredistribution but more people supportredistribution than oppose it.

36% say that government shouldredistribute income from the better offto the less well off; 34% disagree;27% neither agree nor disagree

Support for redistribution hasincreased since 2004, and is at thesame level as in 1999

Support for government intervention toreduce income inequality dependsupon how questions are asked - thereis support for policies which are, ineffect, redistributive, but less whenparticular words like ‘redistribution’,‘poverty’ and ‘poor’ are used directly.For example:

51% say the government shouldprovide a decent standard of living forthe unemployed

But only 27% say the governmentshould spend more on welfarebenefits for the poor, even if it leads tohigher taxes. This has decreasedover the last two decades; in 1991well over half (58%) said thegovernment should spend more onwelfare benefits.

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There are four other main ways thatpeople support reducing inequality.

62% say better education or trainingopportunities should be provided toenable people to get better jobs

56% say taxes for those on lowincomes should be reduced

54% say the minimum wage shouldbe increased

40% say taxes for those on highincomes should be increased

People do not believe that there isequal opportunity in Britain.

80% say children from better-offfamilies have many moreopportunities than children from lesswell-off families

68% say some people have higherincomes than others because theyare born to rich parents and haveadvantages from the start

Only 27% say people in Britain todayhave similar opportunities regardlessof their income

Why is there a relative lack ofsupport for redistribution?The fact that only a minority directlysupport redistribution appears to be apuzzle (Orton and Rowlingson, 2007).If people see income inequality as toogreat, why do people generally notsupport policies to directly reduceinequality?

Part of the issue seems to be with theterm ‘redistribution’, as more peopleanswer favourably about redistributionwhen the general principle is putforward without the explicit term. Thiscould be due to the reluctance ofparties on the left to talk positively aboutredistribution, which has becomesynonymous with an ‘Old Labour’ ‘taxand spend’ approach. Our findingssuggest that political leaders and lobbygroups have a major opportunity toinfluence public opinion here. Morethan a quarter of the public currently siton the fence over redistribution –neither supporting nor opposing it.Convincing arguments could be madeto sway public opinion here.

The public is, however divided on thisissue but explicit support forredistribution still seems relatively lowin comparison with levels of concernabout income inequality. We came upwith three possible explanations whichmight explain this apparent puzzle.Each seems to play a part, with no onesingle explanation solving the puzzle.One explanation for lower levels ofpublic support for redistribution – incomparison to levels of concern aboutincome inequality – is self-interest.Those on higher incomes, who mightlose out from redistribution, are lesslikely to support redistribution thanthose on lower incomes. But self-interest cannot explain views aboutredistribution entirely, given that aquarter of those on higher incomes,who say when asked that they putthemselves first over others, stillsupport redistribution. Perhaps someof these see it in their own bestinterests to reduce inequality (forreasons of social cohesion oreconomic performance). Moreover,support for redistribution is by nomeans universal among those onlower incomes, who are the likelybeneficiaries.

Another part of the puzzle can be solvedby understanding people’s underlyingbeliefs about inequality. Those who seeinequality as caused by factors outsidepeople’s control (e.g. social injustice orbad luck) are much more likely tosupport redistribution than those whosee it as due to laziness on the part of‘the poor’ and hard work on the part of

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‘the rich’. Likewise, those who seeinequality as morally wrong are muchmore likely to support redistributionthan other groups. There is not a strongrelationship between people’s incomelevels and their underlying beliefs (thatis, people’s underlying views do notsimply reflect their own self-interest)and it is clear that both income andunderlying beliefs are independentlyimportant in affecting attitudes toredistribution.

The third explanation is that peoplemay support other kinds of governmentintervention aimed at reducing incomeinequalities. So while some may notsupport ‘redistribution’ explicitly, manysupport policies which are implicitlyredistributive. For example there is astrong concern about lack of equalopportunities for children and so strongsupport for policies which wouldpromote more equality of opportunity.However, the public recognises thatequal opportunities and equaloutcomes are linked and thatgovernment action is needed on bothfronts. In particular, people areconcerned about those on the lowestincomes. There is strong support for aminimum standard of living foreveryone and also strong support forlower taxes for those on low incomes.

At a time when the recession andresulting cuts in public expenditure lookset to impact most on those at thebottom, it seems that the British publicwill be concerned about consequentialincreases in income inequality.

The study, Income inequality - making sense of British social attitudes was funded by the Economicand Social Research Council (RES-062-23-1671) and involved placing a module of questions on the2009 British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA). The BSA has been conducted annually since 1983 andis the country’s leading social research survey. The survey is based on representative samples ofaround 3,500 adults, with findings published each year in an edited book. The datasets are alsodeposited at the Data Archive at the University of Essex. Each annual survey contains a number ofcore questions designed to measure people’s underlying values and background characteristics. Inaddition, each year the questionnaire contains special modules designed to focus on particular topicareas.

For further information about this study, see: Rowlingson, K, Orton, M and Taylor, E (2010) ‘Do we stillcare about inequality?’ in Park, A, Curtice, J, Clery, E and Bryson, D (eds), British Social Attitudes:the 27th report: exploring Labour’s legacy, London: Sage.

About the study

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About the authors

Karen RowlingsonProfessor of Social Policy and Director of the Centre on Household Assets and SavingsManagement (CHASM) www.chasm.bham.ac.uk at the University of Birmingham,E: k.rowlingson@bham.ac.uk

Michael OrtonSenior Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Research, University of WarwickE: Michael.Orton@warwick.ac.uk

Eleanor TaylorResearcher at the National Centre for Social Research and a Co-Director of the British SocialAttitudes survey seriesE: eleanor.taylor@natcen.ac.uk