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This month, we\u2019re proud to welcome Work and Communications (WAC) to our portfolio, a standout WorkerTech venture bringing pay transparency and financial control to hundreds of thousands of hourly-paid workers. We also round up key insights from the Resolution Foundation\u2019s July output, which highlights the ongoing policy shift towards improving job quality, expanding rights, and tackling structural barriers to work. There is a lot to dig into for founders and investors interested in the sector, so we\u2019ve taken some time to reflect all there is to learn, and act on.<\/p>\n
Until next month,
Aish Moothan
Ventures Manager, Resolution Ventures\u00a0<\/p>\n
Announcing our investment into Work and Communications (WAC)<\/p>\n
We\u2019re excited to have invested in Work and Communications Limited, a Manchester\u2011based scale\u2011up improving the working lives of hourly-paid workers through its wage tracking app. Founded in 2020 by Georgina Fairhall, WAC now serves over 350,000 users.<\/p>\n
The app helps users track shifts, rotas, and earnings \u2013 including tax, pension, and student loan deductions \u2013 via live payslip estimates. This means hourly workers can spot underpayments, export professional invoices to employers, and dispute incorrect pay.<\/p>\n
For us as WorkerTech investors, WAC addresses problems experienced by a market of users that are chronically underserved by technology services. Georgina\u2019s motivations for founding WAC come from her own experiences when working in hospitality, where she found herself underpaid for hours worked, with little access to tools for redress.<\/p>\n
WAC delivers direct social impact by improving pay transparency, giving workers greater agency, and an increased awareness of workplace rights. They are a tangible example of the change we think technology can realise for low-paid workers, by creating tools and systems that surface and then remedy problems faced by this group.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re proud to back their mission as they continue to empower the hourly paid workforce across the UK.<\/p>\n
Latest insights from the Resolution Foundation\u00a0<\/p>\n
Opening doors<\/a>: incentivising employers to hire disabled workers RF Economists outline four categories of reform \u2013 reimbursement, reporting, reintegration and recruitment \u2013 that could shift employer behaviour. These include targeted wage subsidies for supported roles, mandatory reporting on disability employment gaps (similar to gender pay gap reporting), incentives for employers supporting return-to-work after long-term sickness, and a greater emphasis on direct outreach to recruit disabled workers.<\/p>\n While existing programmes like Access to Work provide important support, the paper argues they are too reactive and cumbersome. Instead, it calls for more proactive employer-focused policies that reduce the perceived risk and cost of hiring disabled employees.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget about us<\/a>: disabilities and caring responsibilities These households sit above the poverty line but still experience acute financial pressure, and are frequently underserved by both mainstream services and targeted support.<\/p>\n Disabled individuals in this group are less likely to be in full-time work, and more likely to face additional living costs that are poorly covered by existing disability benefits. Similarly, family carers often reduce their working hours or leave work altogether with limited replacement income. The cumulative effect is a persistent erosion of living standards, even when household earnings are not technically \u201clow\u201d.<\/p>\n The Foundation argues that both groups are structurally overlooked in policy and service design, squeezed between targeted poverty alleviation and universal entitlements. Their findings suggest the need for more flexible employment options, better access to targeted support services, and a clearer recognition of the financial risks associated with informal care.<\/p>\n Founders designing flexible workforce tools, caregiver peer platforms, or round-the-clock care-matching services can target these unmet needs. Our companies Mobilise and Equal Care Coop are focused on building support and governance tools that work for these groups.<\/p>\n Low Pay Britain 2025<\/a> However, the focus is now shifting from hourly wages to broader job quality. Millions of workers still lack basic rights. An estimated one million employees currently miss out on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), and 2.4 million on variable hours face unpredictable schedules. The Employment Rights Bill, currently under consideration, aims to address this through expanded eligibility for SSP and the introduction of fair scheduling rules.<\/p>\n The report also explores the long-term effects of recent pay floors, finding that they have lifted wages without significant adverse impacts on employment. But it warns that continued progress now depends on improving progression opportunities, especially in lower-paid sectors such as retail, hospitality and care.<\/p>\n What this research means for founders and investors For founders, there is an opportunity to build tools that help employers comply with new rights frameworks, from SSP eligibility tracking to fair-scheduling software. There is also space for platforms that empower overlooked worker groups, carers, disabled workers, or those juggling variable hours.<\/p>\n For investors, these trends highlight underserved market segments with clear social value and policy tailwinds. Ventures that support job access, financial resilience or rights enforcement, particularly for those in low-to-middle income brackets, are likely to find both commercial viability and increased relevance in the changing employment landscape.<\/p>\n Get involved<\/p>\n Calling all exceptional female founders Direct access to decision-makers from top funds Applications close 1st August.\u00a0Apply now<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2728\u00a0Apply for direct investment from Resolution Ventures\u00a0
This briefing sets out a practical framework to reduce the disability employment gap, which has remained stubbornly high despite recent improvements. Disabled people are still significantly less likely to be in work than their non-disabled peers, and those in work are more likely to be in lower-paid, less secure jobs.<\/p>\n
RF economists have combined survey and qualitative data to show that disabled individuals and family carers in low-to-middle-income households face significantly lower living standards.<\/p>\n
Now in its fifteenth year, the Foundation\u2019s flagship report on pay and conditions paints a changing picture of the UK labour market. Since the introduction of the National Living Wage in 2016, low hourly pay has fallen sharply. Just 10 per cent of employees were low-paid in 2023, down from 21 per cent a decade earlier.<\/p>\n
Taken together, these three publications offer stakeholders greater visibility over the direction of travel in the sector. A labour market increasingly shaped by rising baseline standards, growing recognition of worker diversity, and an urgent need for services that bridge the gap between entitlement and experience.<\/p>\n
Unlock VC has launched their Founders Connect initiative! They\u2019re selecting 30 exceptional female founders to connect with 400+ investors at their Summit in Paris, on Oct 14th and 15th. Selected founders will receive:<\/p>\n
\nMentorship from
\n\u20ac250 travel stipend<\/p>\n
We accept applications from WorkerTech ventures on a rolling basis and expect to make new investments from\u00a0autumn this year onwards. You can book a slot in our\u00a0office hours<\/a>\u00a0for an initial conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This month, we\u2019re proud to welcome Work and Communications (WAC) to our portfolio, a standout WorkerTech venture bringing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[28,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-57589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}