Jun 25, 2026 · 45 min · 14 segments
**What makes a job “good”? Is it pay, flexibility, progression, security, purpose, autonomy, or the people you work with?** Policy debates about inequality often focus on wages and getting people…
Naomi ClaytonGuest
Jonathan CribbHostHelen MillerHost
Conversely, uh, we also tend to have some of the lowest levels of control and autonomy in work too, compared to other European countries.
Um, and we know that that really matters when people are thinking about, you know, job satisfaction, how much they like their, their jobs.
If they feel that they have a degree of autonomy, a degree of, uh, control about kind of how they work, where they work, what they, they do, um, then that makes a difference.
If you work, do you have a good job? What do you want out of a job? Do you value flexibility? Do you want progression? Do you want to find meaning in your work or maybe social connections? How important are these things relative to how much you are paid? In response to concerns about income inequality, policy has often been focused on getting people into jobs and on increasing their incomes.
But a job is much more than a wage, and that means there are a much richer set of issues related to labor market inequalities than just pay.
So today, we are going to unpack what makes a good job and what the government can do to improve work.
This is the fourth and final in our current series on inequality, and I'm once again joined by my colleague Jonathan Cribb, who's been co-piloting this series with me.
And I'm delighted that our special guest today is Naomi Clayton, who is the CEO of the Institute for Employment Studies, uh, prior to which she also held senior positions at the Learning and Work Institute and at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, so brings a huge amount of expertise to our table.
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Conversely, uh, we also tend to have some of the lowest levels of control and autonomy in work too, compared to other European countries.
Um, and we know that that really matters when people are thinking about, you know, job satisfaction, how much they like their, their jobs.
If they feel that they have a degree of autonomy, a degree of, uh, control about kind of how they work, where they work, what they, they do, um, then that makes a difference.
If you work, do you have a good job? What do you want out of a job? Do you value flexibility? Do you want progression? Do you want to find meaning in your work or maybe social connections? How important are these things relative to how much you are paid? In response to concerns about income inequality, policy has often been focused on getting people into jobs and on increasing their incomes.
But a job is much more than a wage, and that means there are a much richer set of issues related to labor market inequalities than just pay.
So today, we are going to unpack what makes a good job and what the government can do to improve work.
This is the fourth and final in our current series on inequality, and I'm once again joined by my colleague Jonathan Cribb, who's been co-piloting this series with me.
And I'm delighted that our special guest today is Naomi Clayton, who is the CEO of the Institute for Employment Studies, uh, prior to which she also held senior positions at the Learning and Work Institute and at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, so brings a huge amount of expertise to our table.