The state with the lowest living wage is Arkansas, at $14.26 an hour.
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In Rochdale, it was 18,000 jobs – 32.6pc of all jobs.
In 2014, young adults were most likely to be paid less than the living wage. More than half were part-time positions.
North Devon fared slightly better, with 23.6% of jobs in the district paying less than the recommended living wage.
The figures are higher than the national Minimum Wage, which increased by 20p an hour to £6.70 this month, and compared with the national Living Wage announced by the UK Government of £7.20 which will come into force for over 25-year-olds next April.
There are separate living wage rates for London and the rest of the United Kingdom, known as the London Living Wage (LLW).
This figure rises to 58% outside of the capital.
They include increasing the federal minimum wage to a living wage, eliminating the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, supporting unions and collective bargaining, establishing work supports like paid sick days, strengthening and enforcing equal opportunity laws, investing in state and federal safety net programs, and investing in living wage jobs. While 16% of jobs done by men in London and 18% outside London paid less than the living wage, among women the figures were 22% and 29% respectively.
Perhaps more concerning for New Jerseyans is that 43 percent of the 130,580 new jobs expected to be created in the state over the next 10 years will pay less than $15 per hour.
“The dismal failure of employers to pay the Living Wage disproportionately hits those in low-paid, insecure work and also women”.
The places with the lowest proportions of jobs paid less than the living wage were the South East of England, London and Scotland (all 19%). Northern Ireland has the highest proportion at 29 per cent.
It’s set by the Mayor of London and the Living Wage Foundation. This is the first year the report includes a living wage for all 50 states.
The figures, based on data collected in the annual survey of hours and earnings, showed that cleaning and catering were the sectors where jobs were most likely to be paid less than the living wage. Therefore the analysis in this article is of jobs below the LLW for London and below the OLLW outside London.
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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”.
