Labour Market Update: Tesco raises pay and the top 1% take more income

Competition in the labour market - with Tesco increasing their hourly pay rate to £10.10 in an attempt to attract new workers and keep their existing staff as the labour market becomes increasingly competitive.

It's an attempt to match similar moves by Lidl, Morrisons and Sainsbury's who are all paying £10 per hour.

Income Inequality

The latest IFS research highlights the extent to which there's continuing income inequality in the UK, with the top 0.1% of income earners having an annual income of over £500,000.

The research goes on to argue that one of the things that perpetuates this is the tax system, that taxes profits, dividends and capital gains of business owners at a lower rate than incomes, meaning that many of the economy's richest are able to reduce their tax liabilities.

Cost of Living Crisis and Real Incomes

Simon Jack briefly looks here at why businesses face the perfecrt storm - a rise in National Insurance contributions, rising energy prices and, although it's not explicitly stated here, uncertainty about the future state of the economy and shaky consumer confidence in the face of a cost of living crisis.