Pay in working class jobs

The Trades Union Congress was founded to advance the “general interests of the working classes”, and that remains our core mission today. While working class jobs may have changed with the shift to a service economy, the experience of poor pay, long hours, and class discrimination that the union movement has fought against remains all too common in today’s UK.

This note is the first in a series of TUC reports looking at the experience of today’s working classes. It shows that for most jobs, pay has been stagnant for almost a decade.

The seven million employees in jobs that earn less than median wages (£12.70 an hour in 2018) but aren’t in low paid jobs (defined here as 75 per cent of the median, or £9.60 an hour) have seen their pay flatline over the decade.

The minimum wage has helped push up pay at the very bottom – but without strong trade unions to ensure gains are widely shared, pay for those in jobs paid below the median is stagnating.

In contrast, those in the highest paid jobs, earning more than twice the median UK wage (over £26 an hour) have seen their pay packets increase by £1.26 an hour, a rise of four per cent, over the same period. For someone working a 35-hour week that would add up to a pay rise of £44 a week.

The analysis also shows how working-class jobs have changed; with retail and care workers now the largest occupations for those earning less than the median wage. And today’s working class is diverse. Looking at those in the worst paid jobs, both black and minority ethnic (BME) workers and women are overrepresented, whereas these groups are both under-represented amongst the higher earners.

Pay is just one aspect of work – and we know that many working-class people are experiencing increased insecurity, work intensification, including the use of new forms of surveillance and control at work, and a lack of voice. That’s why the TUC is campaigning for a new deal that gives working class people the power to bargain for the better jobs they deserve.