New research published today (Thursday) by the TUC provides a local breakdown of the financial benefit to the care workforce, and the wider economic benefits, of raising wages to a fair minimum of £15 per hour across the social care sector.
The full data includes figures for every care providing local authority in England.
Investing in the workforce to end the social care crisis
The social care workforce accounts for £52 billion of England’s economy (GVA).
There are 1,790,000 posts in social care, but around 165,000 of these are vacant. The vacancy rate increased to a record 10.7% in 2021/22.
The shortage of care workers has led to a surge in the number of people waiting for social care assessments, and millions of hours of commissioned home care going unprovided.
Low pay and job insecurity are the main cause of the recruitment and retention crisis:
The TUC’s research finds that a £15 minimum wage across the social care sector would mean:
The union body is calling for the cost to be met by the Treasury, rather than local authorities that remain cash-strapped following cuts since 2010 to the overall funding they receive from central government.
The net cost would be substantially lower than the £5.9 billion upfront requirement to bring pay up to £15 per hour for all care workers. This is because the Treasury would benefit from higher tax returns and reduced in-work benefits payments, and from the economic impacts of the additional consumer spending.
Regional and local impacts
The TUC research calculated which local authorities would gain the strongest economic boosts relative to population size.
West Midlands local authorities in ranking order, along with their annual economic boost:
Note that the ranking is not simply in order of the financial amount, as ranking is relative to population size. See the notes for national ranking and data on all English regions and all care-providing local authorities.
Upgrading care work and care services
Alongside a £15 minimum wage in social care, the TUC is calling for ministers to take the following action to improve care work and the quality and reliability of care services:
TUC Regional Secretary Lee Barron said:
“Most families need social care services at some point. And we all want to know our loved ones will receive a high standard of care. But that’s only possible if social care jobs in the West Midlands are paid well enough to attract and retain the right people.
“We’re calling for a £15 per hour minimum wage across the adult social care sector. This will reduce staff turnover and help fill the thousands of vacancies in care services in the West Midlands.
“There’s another upside. Our research shows that raising social care wages to £15 per hour will have wider economic benefits where care workers live and work. When they spend their higher wages, local businesses in the West Midlands will get a boost. And that will support job creation and higher wages for other workers too.”
- TUC analysis:
Regional impacts from raising all social care sector wages to a minimum of £15 per hour (£s)
Region |
Direct annual wage benefit |
GVA boost (wage benefit with multiplier) |
Population |
GVA boost per capita |
East Midlands |
617,503,312 |
802,754,306 |
4,880,094 |
164 |
North East |
324,292,258 |
421,579,935 |
2,646,772 |
159 |
North West |
854,880,980 |
1111345,274 |
7,422,295 |
150 |
South West |
631,505,366 |
820,956,975 |
5,712,840 |
144 |
Yorkshire & Humber |
604,697,059 |
786,106,177 |
5,481,431 |
143 |
West Midlands |
653,473,109 |
849,515,042 |
5,954,240 |
143 |
Eastern |
649,017,256 |
843,722,432 |
6,348,096 |
133 |
South East |
946,842,313 |
1230,895,007 |
9,294,023 |
132 |
London |
653,445,609 |
849,479,291 |
8,796,628 |
97 |
ENGLAND |
5,935,657,261 |
7,716,354,440 |
56,536,419 |
136 |
- Full local authority dataset: The spreadsheet linked to below gives the following information for every local authority that provides care services:
Note that district authorities are not included as county councils provide care services.
- Methodology for TUC analysis showing the economic benefits of a £15 hourly minimum pay in social care:
- Other data on social care used in the release:
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