20% Of Workers Have Suffered Discrimination Over The Last Year
A new report by the Resolution Foundation has found that 20% of workers have been the victim of discrimination at some point over the last year.
Report Findings
The report found that:-
- 20% of those aged 18-65% had suffered some form of discrimination over the last year, either at work or when applying for a new job
- The most common form of prejudice encountered was age discrimination (3.7 million), followed by sex discrimination (2.7 million). Meanwhile, 1.9 million workers have been subject to race discrimination, whilst the same number have been the victim of disability discrimination. 21% of those from ethnic minority backgrounds have encountered prejudice due to their ethnicity, whilst 15% of the disabled have been subject to disability discrimination
- The low paid are more likely to worry about prejudice (20%), compared to the high paid (11%). This is because discrimination is more likely to be encountered in lower paid roles. For example, 22% of those who work in retail and 20% of those employed in hospitality have suffered some form of prejudice. That compares to 14% who work in finance. However, those earning over £40,000.00 per annum are more likely to pursue a claim in the employment tribunal, compared to those earning less than £20,000.00 a year.
- Those who suffer disability discrimination are the most likely to commence an employment tribunal claim, with 8200 claims issued in 2019/20. That compares to 6300 sex discrimination claims, 4000 race discrimination claims, and 2400 age discrimination claims
- 13% of those who participated in the survey state that they have been rejected for a job due to some form of prejudice, whilst 8% assert that they have lost out on promotion on account of it.
Commenting upon the findings, the senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, Hannah Slaughter, stated: "Britain has had laws preventing discrimination in place since the 1960s, yet it remains all too common in workplaces today....Low-paid workers are most likely to be worried about discrimination at work, but the shortcomings of our legal system mean they are the least likely to try and address mistreatment through the courts."
Many Likely To Have Cashflow Problems During Recession
As we highlighted in a previous article, the second most common reason as to why businesses fail is cashflow problems, with 29% going bust for that reason.
The co-founder and executive manager of Charter Capital, Gregory Brown, observed that: "Growth and profit are a double-edged sword that can lull business owners into a false sense of security. A business can be busier than ever, but founders will almost always come up short when their operational expenses make a jump before incoming payments do."
Now a new report compiled by BPI Auctions has found that just 8% of business owners have put contingency plans in place to manage cash flow during what is predicted to be a deep recession which is likely to last well into next year, but with some claiming it could last as long as 2 years.
The finding comes despite the fact that 31% of the business owners were more worried about the impact of a recession on their business compared to the Covid-19 pandemic, and that 10% are not inclined to invest any further capital into their business for the same reason
Cash Flow Forecasting
Reacting to the findings, Rick Smith, the Managing Director of Forbes Burton, stated: "Using cash flow forecasting and reporting can help reduce risk in a business as you can see when money is likely to be tight. It helps to see where cash can be moved around in certain weeks or months to be able to make the debt repayments in a timely manner. It can also show when money is due to be paid to you, especially if you are offering 30, 60 or even 90-day payments on invoices. Knowing that the money will be in at a certain time means you can plan to buy stock at that point or run a promotional campaign to generate more sales."
Smith adds: "The looming recession is likely to make the necessity for cash flow forecasting even more significant. As overheads go up, businesses will need to see how this is going to impact their outgoings and where savings may need to be made."
