Report: Employee jobs paid below the living wage 2021

New research by the Living Wage Foundation demonstrates the scale of low pay in the UK, with 1 in 6 workers in the UK earning less than the real Living Wage. This equates to 17.1% of all employee jobs and a total of 4.8 million.  

Key findings:

• Workers from racialised groups (19.4%) are more likely to earn below the real Living Wage than white workers (16.3%) 
• women (20.4 percent) are more likely to earn below the real Living Wage than men (13.9%) 
• part-time workers (33.2%) are more likely to earn below the Living Wage than full-time workers (11.0%).

 There has been a significant decrease compared to last year where 5.4 million jobs paid below the real Living Wage - the largest drop ever recorded in percentage point terms. However, the report highlights that a key factor in the drop has been increased levels of unemployment in low-paid sectors such as hospitality and retail.