Report: Low Pay Britain 2017

This is the Resolution Foundation's seventh annual report on the prevalence of low pay in Britain. It uses the latest data available (April 2016) to map out the scale of low pay and the groups that are most affected.

Key findings:

• As of April 2016, 5.1 million employees are low paid, down from 5.4 million in the previous year. This drop is the largest single-year percentage fall since 1977 and has been driven primarily by the introduction of the National Living Wage.
• Seven million employees are projected to be paid at the wage floor come 2020. It will bring challenges in low-paying industries like retail and hospitality, where 24 per cent and 38 per cent of employees respectively are set to be at the wage floor in 2020.
• The focus groups held by the Foundation highlighted a range of non-pay issues: long shifts that were badly planned; a lack of appreciation or recognition from managers; and being expected to be entirely flexible with little concern for work-life balance.