BUDGET PERSPECTIVES 2017, PAPER 3. Low Pay, Minimum Wages and Household Incomes: Evidence for Ireland. June 2016

This paper examines the relationship between low hourly wages and household incomes, and the potential impact of increases in the national minimum wage on household poverty. Results based on up-to-date Irish data confirm the proportion of employees falling below the commonest low pay threshold (two-thirds of median hourly earnings) has increased from approximately 20 per cent in 2005 to 23 per cent in 2013. Results confirm, however, that very few low paid individuals are found in households with incomes below the most commonly used poverty line income cut-off i.e., 60 per cent of median equivalised income. This is a feature which is now well established across countries and over time. A corollary, illustrated using SWITCH, the ESRI microsimulation model, is that increases in the minimum wage result in increases in disposable income which are mainly in the upper half of the household income distribution. Policy may, of course, be concerned with low individual incomes as well as with low household incomes; but it is important to be clear about what minimum wage policy can, and cannot, achieve. It is also important, as recent UK experience illustrates, that the design of tax and welfare policy changes should take such factors into account from the outset

School-age outcomes of children after perinatal brain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Over 3000 children suffer a perinatal brain injury in England every year according to national surveillance. The childhood outcomes of infants with perinatal brain injury are however unknown.Methods A systematic review and meta-analyses were undertaken of studies published between 2000 and September 2021 exploring school-aged neurodevelopmental outcomes of children after perinatal brain injury compared with those without perinatal brain injury. The primary outcome was neurodevelopmental impairment, which included cognitive, motor, speech and language, behavioural, hearing or visual impairment after 5 years of age.Results This review included 42 studies. Preterm infants with intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) grades 3–4 were found to have a threefold greater risk of moderate-to-severe neurodevelopmental impairment at school age OR 3.69 (95% CI 1.7 to 7.98) compared with preterm infants without IVH. Infants with perinatal stroke had an increased incidence of hemiplegia 61% (95% CI 39.2% to 82.9%) and an increased risk of cognitive impairment (difference in full scale IQ −24.2 (95% CI –30.73 to –17.67) . Perinatal stroke was also associated with poorer academic performance; and lower mean receptive −20.88 (95% CI –36.66 to –5.11) and expressive language scores −20.25 (95% CI –34.36 to –6.13) on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) assessment. Studies reported an increased risk of persisting neurodevelopmental impairment at school age after neonatal meningitis. Cognitive impairment and special educational needs were highlighted after moderate-to-severe hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. However, there were limited comparative studies providing school-aged outcome data across neurodevelopmental domains and few provided adjusted data. Findings were further limited by the heterogeneity of studies.Conclusions Longitudinal population studies exploring childhood outcomes after perinatal brain injury are urgently needed to better enable clinicians to prepare affected families, and to facilitate targeted developmental support to help affected children reach their full potential