GP essay question guide
How should governments reduce inequality?
Separate unequal income from unequal access, security, and power. Compare prevention, redistribution, wage rules, services, and targeted support.
Unpack this question first: 'How' asks for methods and their limits, not whether to act. Say which inequality you mean: income, wealth or opportunity. Lesson: Reading an essay question: terms and scope
Use this question in writing - Sign in, check the question, then write your response.
Topics: Economics, Society and Culture, Politics and Governance
Three argument directions
Raise market income
Wage and workplace rules can improve earnings and treatment before taxes and transfers.
Qualification: Coverage, enforcement, business adjustment, and excluded workers matter.
Build capability
Targeted services can address barriers linked to disability, family stress, education, and care.
Qualification: Complex eligibility can miss people and impose administrative burdens.
Provide broad security
Cash or universal support can reduce severe insecurity and give people more choice.
Qualification: Cost, targeting, inflation, and effects on existing services require careful design.
A model paragraph
Our own paragraph for this question. Copy its moves, not its words.
Governments should reduce inequality mainly by raising the earnings and skills of those at the bottom, because cash payments alone treat the symptom rather than the cause. A cleaner whose wage barely moves for ten years falls further behind even if a yearly payout helps with bills. Singapore's Progressive Wage Model links minimum pay to training and job level in sectors such as cleaning, security and retail, so wages rise as workers gain skills. This approach has limits. It covers only some sectors, and workers who are ill, caring for family or unable to retrain need direct support. The fairest policy combines both: wage and skills ladders for those who can climb them, and targeted help, such as ComLink+ for low-income families with children, for those who cannot.
How it is built
- Stand: a method (raise earnings and skills), as 'how' asks.
- Case: the Progressive Wage Model.
- Limit and judgement: some people cannot climb, so combine ladders with targeted help.
Six examples to compare
ComLink+ Combines Coaching and Targeted Support
ComLink+ pairs lower-income families with family coaches and links progress packages to steps in education, employment, finance, and housing.
Possible essay use
ComLink+ pairs lower-income families with family coaches and links progress packages to steps in education, employment, finance, and housing.
Limitation
Programme design and early participation do not prove sustained mobility, and conditions may fit some families better than others.
Case or source date: 2024-03-06
Singapore Raises Retail Progressive-Wage Requirements
Singapore's retail Progressive Wage Model sets wage requirements alongside training requirements for covered resident workers.
Possible essay use
Singapore's retail Progressive Wage Model sets wage requirements alongside training requirements for covered resident workers.
Limitation
Mandated wage ladders may support pay progression but can raise business costs and do not cover every worker.
Case or source date: 2025-09-01
Source: Ministry of Manpower
Singapore's Enabling Masterplan Targets Disability Inclusion
Singapore's 2025 Enabling Masterplan update reports national initiatives intended to improve inclusion of persons with disabilities.
Possible essay use
Singapore's 2025 Enabling Masterplan update reports national initiatives intended to improve inclusion of persons with disabilities.
Limitation
A national roadmap does not establish that physical, educational, and employment barriers have already been removed.
Case or source date: 2022-08-25
Singapore Enacts Workplace Fairness Protections
Singapore's Workplace Fairness Act 2025 prohibits specified discriminatory employment decisions and requires fair employment practices.
Possible essay use
Singapore's Workplace Fairness Act 2025 prohibits specified discriminatory employment decisions and requires fair employment practices.
Limitation
The Act's existence does not show how often workers will use its remedies or whether hidden discrimination will fall.
Case or source date: 2025-02-13
Source: Attorney-General's Chambers
The Widening Gap: Economic Inequality's Deep Roots
Economic inequality, the growing gap between rich and poor, stems from complex factors like policies and technology, raising global concerns.
Possible essay use
Oxfam reported in January 2023 that the richest 1% took almost two-thirds of the US$42 trillion of new wealth created since 2020.
Limitation
Oxfam is a campaigning charity, and its figures rely on bank estimates of net wealth that swing with share prices; the pandemic boom in asset prices exaggerates the 2020 to 2022 picture.
Case or source date: 2023-01-16
Source: Al Jazeera
UBI: Solution for Inequality & Robot Job Loss?
Universal Basic Income (UBI) offers a regular payment to all citizens, aiming to cut poverty and buffer job losses from automation.
Possible essay use
Preliminary results in February 2019 found the Finnish basic income had no effect on employment in its first year.
Limitation
A small, two-year trial among unemployed people cannot show how a permanent basic income for all citizens would affect jobs, prices or taxes.
Case or source date: 2019-02-08