SWBG blog

Women, Work and Wealth in Scotland's changing economy 2022 - Guest blog by Carmen Martinez

Last month, the Scottish Women’s Budget Group launched its latest analysis of women, work, and wealth in Scotland.

This piece of research was commissioned back in the summer of 2022 to understand the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cost-of-living crisis have so far had on women’s participation in Scotland’s labour market.

The report’s findings paint a bittersweet picture of current labour trends. On the one hand, data shows that as of August 2022 female employment rate was at 74.9%, the highest on record. Furthermore, the report highlights that women now make up 50.5% of the workforce in Scotland. Based on these stats, one could argue that women have made significant gains in the labour market despite of the pandemic, and that Scotland is well within track of achieving its gender equality goals by 2030 in line with the United Nations’ Agenda for Sustainable Development. On the other hand, further evidence reveals the gendered nature of Scotland’s economy. For example, the report shows that women continue to make up the vast majority of part-time workers (74%), and that 80% of all inactive people with caring responsibilities are women. In addition to this, the employment rate of black and minority ethnic women is 22% below that of white women, a figure that exposes the layers of inequality that still characterise Scotland’s society.

Following on from the evaluation of employment rates, the report delves into women’s earnings compared to men’s, the gender pay gap and women’s levels of wealth. The findings here are hardly surprising as we learn that real median earnings for women in full-time work are still £73 lower than those for their male counterparts. As of the gender pay gap, despite having narrowed between 2014-2020, it has increased in the last two years, rising to 11.6% and 12.2% in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Regarding wealth, median inflation-adjusted individual figures show that between 2016 and 2018 men were £14,000 better off than women, with an estimated 34% of women not saving towards their retirement as opposed to 29% of men.

Overall, the report adds to the body of evidence that exposes the extent of gender inequality in Scotland. Some of the data provided can hardly be considered new or even unexpected, though some of the latest statistics reveal the magnitude of the effects that the pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures have had on female earnings and employment rates. What’s more, the evidence collected in this piece of research uncovers women’s vulnerability in the face of the current cost-of-living crisis. On a more positive note, however, this research includes a set of recommendations for policy changes intended for the Scottish Government. These are designed to tackle the issues of gender equality examined, and thus emphasise the need to expand childcare and to deliver a ‘just approach’ for both care workers and care beneficiaries. Most importantly, these recommendations take into account other Scottish Government commitments such as the Net Zero Industrial Strategy and advocate for including care jobs as part of a green industrial strategy for Scotland to achieve its net zero targets by 2045.

These policy proposals would require a new funding approach and appropriate budget allocations to ensure implementation. In times of tight budgets, however, they would also demand strong political commitment to drive action. The Scottish Government should focus on the long-term benefits that the realisation of these policies would yield in the delivery of a fairer and more resilient economy in Scotland for all women and men.

Responding to the Draft Budget 2023-24

This blog shares our first look review of the draft Scottish Budget 2023-24 and connected Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and what it means for women, particularly those on the lowest incomes.

We’ll return in the new year with more analysis.

Tax

How our revenue is generated has an important role to play in tackling inequality. The draft Budget sets out tax increases for those on higher and top rates of tax. This builds on previous tax changes which aim to implement progressive income tax revenue.

With men being a higher proportion of those paying both higher and top rate taxes this announcement is a further step to better redistribution. Evidence from the Office of the Chief Economist demonstrates that changes made in Scottish income tax in 2021-22 compared to a scenario of no tax changes since 2016-17 has meant that in 2021-22 85% of women will pay less tax, compared to 72% of male taxpayers.

All tax rates have been frozen and this will have an impact for those on lower incomes. Ideally, we’d have liked to see a shift up for those on Starter and Basic tax rates, a higher proportion of whom are women.

There was no commitment within the budget to review Council Tax processes but with work underway on a Fiscal Framework between Scottish and Local Government the hope has to be that this could include a process for the long overdue reform of local taxation.

Social Care

Urgent investment is needed in Scotland’s social care services to meet current challenges faced across the sector as well as build a quality service for generations to come. This draft budget failed to deliver the urgent cash injection needed to improve services now.

Wages for those working in social care will rise to the Real Living Wage (RLW) of £10.90, this marks a step back from commitments made last year to create a minimum wage floor that was above the RLW. Last year this was £10.50 when the RLW was set at £9.90. To maintain the commitment to paying above the RLW we would have expected to see a minimum wage floor for social care once again announced, £11.50 would have been a minimum to keep pace with inflation.

The undervaluation of care has consequences for individuals and society, as well as the state. It impacts poverty rates (and the failure to reduce these), entrenches women’s inequality, leads to greater spending on emergency medical interventions that could be prevented and it holds people back from living flourishing lives. Over a quarter of the people in receipt of social care support live in the most deprived areas and unpaid carers in these areas are more likely to care for longer periods of time.

In January we’ll be publishing new research that outlines the detail behind the type of investment we need to see to deliver quality, accessible adult social care in Scotland.

Childcare

The Budget provides an ongoing commitment to delivery of 1,140 hours childcare for all over 3’s and qualifying 2 year-olds. Within this investment there is a need to build flexibility into provision to better meet the needs of parents, particularly single parents.

There was no mention in the budget of childcare workers wages, another highly gendered sector. It appears that meeting the RLW for this workforce as standard remains some way off.

Social Security

We were disappointed that the Scottish Child Payment did not rise in line with inflation. This brings a real-terms cut to the value of this important new benefit delivered by Social Security Scotland.

Importantly, all other benefits delivered in Scotland are set to rise in line with inflation. This was the minimum necessary for those reliant on these incomes, the majority of whom are women. However, the draft budget fails to go further to deliver for certain groups of women, particularly unpaid carers.

Just Transition

As necessary commitments are made on how Scotland will tackle the climate crisis in this Budget more needs to be done for Scotland to champion a feminist just transition. There is a risk that the unprecedented investment in decarbonising economic activities will widen labour market gender inequality if a gendered analysis is not built into the planning process.

Gender analysis needs to be built into all aspects of just transition spending to ensure it works to tackle inequality. For example, investment in active travel continues to grow at scale as part of the process to decarbonise transport. We welcome this news but as the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement highlights men are much more likely to use active travel infrastructure. Further analysis from the UK Women’s Budget Group highlights that it’s white, middle class men that are most likely to benefit. Within existing budgets equality analysis can work to build fairer access to active transport and it is vital, across all areas, that this analysis is brought into delivery decisions.

Employability

Following cuts to employability programmes through the Emergency Budget Review it was positive that these cuts were not to be long-term.

In order for these services to work for women, particularly groups such as single parents, delivery will depend on targeted use of the resources and linking to services such as childcare facilitates to ensure they are accessible.

Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement

The Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement (EFSBS) is an important statement of intent and commitment to equality analysis within the Budget process. What is vital is that the process of developing the EFSBS is used to inform budget decision making, rather than retrofitted to produce the document. Capacity and support must be provided at an early stage in the budget process to ensure that the EFSBS is resourced to provide, quality, transparent analysis of the equality impacts through the budget in an accessible format.

The overall statement is necessarily topline. However, clear efforts have been made within this to make overarching budget information more accessible within the introduction.

SWBG is most interested in the detail which can be found in Annex D. Within this Annex each portfolio outlines some key areas within the portfolio and breaks down impacts for each of the protected characteristics and in terms of socio-economic disadvantage. Developments this year include adding details on how changes to spending, compared to last year, affected the highlighted issues. This addition adds an attempt to draw out the equality analysis that should be a part of all budget decisions and it is clear that some portfolio areas have taken this opportunity to explain impact.

In other areas we are still concerned by the lack of next step analysis, from acknowledging unequal impact to how this impacted decisions. We would have been keen to see more links to Equality Impact Assessments that were part of the budget process and may have filled this gap.

Annex D is a big document and we’ll update this blog in the new year with some specific examples.

SWBG Budget Response - Emergency Budget Review 2022

Written by Sara Cowan, Coordinator and Yve Barry, Engagement Officer at Scottish Women's Budget Group

Last week the Deputy First Minister, John Swinney MSP, published the Emergency Budget Review (EBR). This has been delayed due to the upheaval of the UK ‘mini-budget’, its reaction in the markets, and the new Prime Minister announcing that the UK Fiscal Statement will be moved to the 17th November to become the Autumn Statement. Due to inflation, it was noted by the Deputy First Minister that in total the annual budget is worth £1.7 billion less than the budget published in December 2021. The EBR only notes changes for the current financial year of 2022-23. You can read more about the Emergency Budget Review 2022 here: Emergency Budget Review 2022 – inflation implications laid bare  – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe (spice-spotlight.scot).

We’ve been analysing what the emergency budget review might mean for women, particularly those at the sharpest end of the cost-of-living crisis. Here’s some reflections on the announcements.

There was an emphasis on the disproportionate impacts of the cost-of-living crisis on low-income households, which we know women make up a large proportion of (Women's Budget Group 2018). The big announcement to double the Scottish Child Bridging payment, had been made earlier in October and, is a welcome part of the EBR. Other support targeting those on low incomes included further support for the fuel security fund and increasing funding to local authorities for additional Discretionary Housing Payment support. The Scottish Government has shown an important commitment to putting more cash in people’s pockets. When it comes to the Budget for next year, we’ll be looking for this to be continued by uprating Scottish benefits in line with inflation.

Another clear element of prioritisation was enhancing pay awards for public sector workers, which is encouraging as women make up a large proportion of this workforce. People need to be paid enough to live a decent and dignified life; this needs to be part of the provision of quality public services and must be continued in the Budget for next year.

However, £615 million in savings set out in the EBR will be felt, the key question for government is who feels the impact greatest and how can inequalities continue to be challenged. It is always a concern when cuts are made to public services as women have a greater reliance on these services and will be impacted hardest, further entrenching structural inequalities. The reprioritisation of the Health & Social Care portfolio is to improve the pay deals of health care staff. Whilst improved pay deals that focus the largest pay rises on the lowest paid workers is vital, it is concerning how these public service cuts could impact the daily lives of women. For example, mental health funding is to be cut back by £38 million. In our Women’s Survey 2022 that was conducted between February-March this year, participants were already expressing concern over rising costs that could easily spiral into stress and mental health issues. Our recently published research briefing, ‘I don’t live, I survive’, with the Poverty Alliance, reported negative impacts on mental health in all the interviews with some women experiencing depression and anxiety, sleeping more to avoid mealtimes, or sleeping less due to stress. Furthermore, impacts on mental health were reported to be exacerbated by the loneliness of not being able to afford to socialise, for example. These rising costs, which this review aimed to tackle, have deeply embedded intersecting issues such as impacts on mental health.

Spend on social care is another area of concern. The Summary of Evidence on Equality and Fairness notes that all reductions in social care capacity and health care capacity have a disproportionate impact on unpaid carers, the majority of whom are women. People receiving social care support have already experienced a tumultuous two and a half years through the pandemic. This is a budget area that needs significant increase in spending and any move to reprioritise funds from social care needs to be considered for the long-term impacts it could have on those relying on the services. Whilst the budget situation for next financial year is expected to be challenging, social care needs to be prioritised as part of the recovery from Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis.

It will only be a matter of time until we see the impacts of these cuts on people’s lives, and in the meantime, the Scottish Government must monitor these impacts to inform future policy making. However, inflation will continue to pose issues and restraints for budgets. Money that is being “re-profiled” and promised to be spent in future financial years, may have to be curtailed due to these current squeezes from rising inflation (SPICe Spotlight 2022).

Equality considerations in the Emergency Budget Review process

We welcome the publication of the Summary of Evidence on Equality and Fairness as an important recognition of the need for equality evidence to inform decision making across budget portfolios. Processes to bring together this evidence should be at the heart of policy making so that Scotland’s resources are best targeting at building an equal and fair society. More evidence is given for areas of increased budget spend within the EBR, while this is very welcome it is equally as important to provide clear evidence where cuts are faced. The summary of evidence recognises at points that decisions being made have potential to increase inequalities or slow down delivery of work. The longer-term implications of this will depend on Budget decisions for the next financial year. We reiterate our call made with other Women’s Organisations ahead of the EBR underlining the importance of an intersectional budget analysis to allocate spending across portfolios to prevent poverty, destitution and insecurity for women. Read more about this in our letter to John Swinney.

The Scottish Budget is to be published on the 15th of December 2022. We’ll be sharing our thoughts again following the Government announcements as well as hosting a budget watch-along so join our mailing list to stay up to date.

The cost-of-living crisis doesn't impact us equally

By Yve Barry, Engagement Officer at Scottish Women's Budget Group

As we reach a pivotal point during this cost-of-living crisis with rising energy and soaring inflation matched with stagnating wages, the prospect of families falling deeper into poverty whilst listening to promises of one-off payments from government, we must remember that this crisis doesn’t impact the nation equally.

At SWBG, we have continued to demonstrate the exacerbating inequalities that have come to the fore during this crisis. While we listen and read the news stories about worsening situations of families and individuals, we also must remember that many groups of families and individuals have unmet, intersecting needs that are worsening because of this crisis. One of these groups is women. More generally, women are more likely to experience poverty and its effects. This is due to the fact they often have lower levels of savings and wealth and restricted in accessing an increase of paid work than men due to caring responsibilities. Within this large overarching group, women from certain ethnic groups, as well as disabled women, and single parents will be hit hardest by these rising costs (Women’s Budget Group, 2022).

Research

Our survey results, that have been distributed widely and shared on recent blog posts, highlight many issues for women in Scotland today. Even though it was conducted between 9th February and 10th March of this year, the cost-of-living crisis still weighed heavily in the results. We had 425 responses from all the 32 local authority areas in Scotland. 32.71% admitted they were struggling to manage energy costs whilst 45.41% had to make changes to other areas of household spending because of these costs. The impact of the cost-of-living crisis on our respondents back in February and March was clear. As we are approaching winter, it is highly likely these stresses, concerns and cuts have been further entrenched for many of these women.

A large amount of the discourse surrounding the cost-of-living crisis focuses heavily on the rising prices of energy costs. The average energy bill in the UK has risen by 27% as of the 1st of this month as part of the energy price cap. Many women in this country are now currently presented with the choice between eating and heating this upcoming winter, acting as shock absorbers for poverty in their homes (Women’s Budget Group, 2005). Our previous research also highlighted how women were already cutting non-essential expenditure, often sources of essential leisure or socialisation. However, women will also have to deal with unanticipated outgoings or emergency costs they may not be able to afford. These could be essential household repairs or transport costs for health appointments. Small, everyday instances like these are often forgotten about in the bigger picture of the cost-of-living crisis.

Prior to our upcoming research launch with the Poverty Alliance about women’s experiences of the cost-of-living crisis, the initial research briefing published today shares experiences of some women interviewed for the research in August this year – including costs and cuts they are facing. Women also discuss the lack of awareness about the existence of advice or information services, and financial support such as the Scottish Welfare Fund. Overall, these initial findings demonstrate the overwhelming anxiety these women feel because of rising costs. They are having to resort to coping mechanisms such as reducing food intake, energy usage, and falling into debt to survive.

The offer of cost-of-living payments are welcome. However, only to an extent. Whilst people could receive cash support, for many this doesn’t remedy root causes or the rise of intersecting struggles as we rapidly approach winter. The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2022-2023 includes measures to curb these rising costs such as increasing the Scottish Child Payment and extending the age requirements. However, as this research notes, one-off payments can only go so far for those with the lowest incomes and cannot fully stop these households falling deeper into the depths of poverty and destitution. The forthcoming budget measures that are responding to the cost-of-living crisis must include an intersectional gender analysis of proposals to understand how they affect women and men differently, and the impacts on different women.