Report: The Great Escape? Low pay and progression in the UK's labour market

By tracking low-paid employees across a decade, the Resolution Foundation on behalf of the Social Mobility Commission is able to analyse how these individuals' earnings have progressed.

Key findings:

• For most low-paid workers, poorly-paid positions are not acting as a first rung on the ladder to better paid employment - it is the only rung.
• One in six were classed as escapers - those who earn above the low pay threshold in each of the final three years of the decade.
• One in four stuck in low pay roles throughout the period.
• Just under half were cyclers, moving onto higher wages at some point but not sustaining that progress.
• The remaining one in ten employees exited the data, meaning they were not an employee after the initial period.

The report considers whether tackling low-pay can help with the UK's stalling levels of productivity.