Summary

Using the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset we estimate both raw and conditional free school meals earnings gaps at age 30. Decomposition methods are used to explore how these gaps can be explained by differences in educational attainment, labour market experience and demographic characteristics.

Publications

• Why free school meal recipients earn less than their peers

  Students from poorer backgrounds typically go on to earn less than others as adults and the differences are stark. What factors are behind the earnings gap?

Data

• Understanding the free school meals earning gap: reference tables

  Regression and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition outputs for understanding the free school meals earning gap, based on Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO) data for people who were aged 30 years between April 2016 and April 2019.

Methodology

• Understanding the free school meals earnings gap: methodology

  Methodological details for the derivation of unadjusted and adjusted free school meals earnings gaps and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition.

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