Report: Employee jobs paid below the living wage: 2020

This report, compiled by the Living Wage Foundation, explores the number and proportion of employee jobs paid below the Living Wage according to the UK’s best earnings data (the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings), in order to assess the incidence of low pay, and trends across groups and over time.

Key findings:

• 20.3% of employee jobs in the UK (5.5 million jobs) were paid below the Living Wage in April 2020 – broadly unchanged from 2019, when the figure was 20.0 per cent (5.5 million jobs).
• The region with the highest proportion of employee jobs paid below the Living Wage in April 2020 was Northern Ireland (25.3%), followed by the East Midlands (23.1%), Yorkshire and the Humber (22.8%), and the North East (22.5%). Scotland now has the lowest proportion of employee jobs paid below the Living Wage (15.2 per cent).
• Jobs held by women (23.8%) were more likely to be paid below the Living Wage in April 2020 than those held by men (16.6%). This gap has narrowed slightly since 2012, but still 60% of below-Living-Wage jobs were held by women in April 2020.
• Part-time jobs were much more likely to be paid below the Living Wage in April 2020 than full-time jobs were. This gap has also been narrowing over the course of the decade.
• The hospitality sector had the highest proportion of jobs paid below the Living Wage in April 2020 (70.8%), followed by the arts, entertainment and recreation sector (36.8%). Below-Living-Wage rates in these sectors are likely to have been pushed up this year by a high incidence of furloughing without pay being topped up by employers.

This report has been produced by the Living Wage Foundation, using published data from the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey for Hours and Earnings. It is the ninth annual update on employee jobs paid below the Living Wage.