There are six million workers in the United Kingdom paid less than the living wage.
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MORE than 270,000 jobs in the region pay less than the Living Wage, new figures show.
The living wage, which is calculated to cover the basic cost of living, is £7.85 an hour over most of the United Kingdom and £9.15 in London.
Women seem to be particularly affected by lower incomes: 22% of female employees in London and 29% in the rest of the United Kingdom earn less than the recommended living wage, while the comparative figures for men were just 16% and 18% respectively.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the research also found that younger workers tend to be more likely to be earning less than the Living Wage, with a few employment sectors also more likely than others to sign up to the scheme.
The selection of potential customers living on below the Living Wage has exploded by 6 percent in to 19p c, new numbers from the originial and Office of National Statistics expose.
Among jobs taken by 18- to 24-year-olds, 48% in London and 58% outside were paid less than the living wage. The living wage there for a single adult is $21.44 an hour. Jobs paying below the Living Wage have proliferated around the country.
For full-time workers on the minimum wage their will salary jump from £11,830 to £13,104.
North west regional secretary Lynn Collins told the M.E.N: “Everybody deserves a fair day’s pay for an honest day’s work”.
In real terms (after adjusting for inflation), the London Living Wage rose by 3% between 2008 and 2014 while median hourly pay for employees aged 18 and over in London fell by 10% in real terms.
“A wage that keeps families trapped in poverty and despair, no matter how hard or how many hours they work, is a national crisis”, says Jill Reese, the Alliance’s associate director.
“The best employers are not waiting for government to act”.
A St Helens Council spokesperson said: “Individual pay arrangements are, of course, a matter for the employers and employees of those organisations and companies concerned”.
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It comes ahead of the Government’s National Living Wage which was announced in July and will be implemented from April 2016.
