Over a fifth of North West employees are paid below the real living wage rate, new figures shared by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) reveal today.
The real living wage rate, set by the Living Wage Foundation, was increased to £9.30 per hour this week, as new employers in the region announced their accreditation to the scheme.
However, figures from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) estimate that 629,000 jobs, representing 21.1% of jobs, pay below the living wage rate, higher than the UK average of 20.1%. But as many as one third of employees in some constituencies in the North West are paid below the rate. This comes after the TUC revealed recently that a decade of low pay was driving a sharp rise in household debt, to pre-2008 levels.
Constituencies with the highest proportion of employees paid below the living wage include:
Ahead of an election, the TUC is calling for urgent action.
TUC North West regional secretary, Jay McKenna, said: “It’s great that we’ve seen more employers become voluntarily accredited to pay staff a wage that they can live on. They’re doing the right thing by their workers and paying their share. But these numbers show that for too many, low pay is a problem that isn’t going away.
“The impact on working families is clear for all to see. We’ve seen the growth in food bank use, from people in work also, and we have workers across the country taking strike action just to squeeze an extra couple of pounds from their employer so they have a wage they can live on.
“Working families everywhere deserve better than having to scrape by, loading the everyday essentials onto a credit card or cutting back. For too long, wages have been held back by this government. We need a £10 an hour minimum wage as soon as possible. We need unions to be able to access workplaces to collectively bargain for members, because we all know that joining a union is the best way to secure better pay.”
Numbers are based on ASHE estimates on jobs.
|
Jobs (thousands) |
Percentage (%) |
UK |
5,568 |
20.1 |
North West |
629 |
21.1 |
Altrincham and Sale West |
9 |
21.5 |
Ashton-under-Lyne |
8 |
26.6 |
Birkenhead |
6 |
27.4 |
Blackburn |
10 |
20.0 |
Blackley and Broughton |
9 |
18.7 |
Blackpool North and Cleveleys |
8 |
25.5 |
Blackpool South |
11 |
37.0 |
Bolton North East |
7 |
28.0 |
Bolton South East |
8 |
21.7 |
Bolton West |
7 |
23.4 |
Bootle |
11 |
21.1 |
Burnley |
9 |
27.0 |
Bury North |
7 |
20.7 |
Bury South |
7 |
34.3 |
Cheadle |
7 |
15.2 |
Chorley |
9 |
27.9 |
City of Chester |
13 |
19.1 |
Congleton |
5 |
19.7 |
Crewe and Nantwich |
10 |
20.5 |
Denton and Reddish |
6 |
26.1 |
Eddisbury |
8 |
18.7 |
Ellesmere Port and Neston |
6 |
20.6 |
Fylde |
7 |
20.1 |
Garston and Halewood |
8 |
20.6 |
Halton |
8 |
24.3 |
Hazel Grove |
5 |
30.7 |
Heywood and Middleton |
8 |
27.1 |
Hyndburn |
10 |
28.9 |
Knowsley |
9 |
21.1 |
Lancaster and Fleetwood |
8 |
21.6 |
Leigh |
9 |
31.9 |
Liverpool, Riverside |
19 |
14.3 |
Liverpool, Walton |
6 |
18.7 |
Liverpool, Wavertree |
5 |
20.6 |
Liverpool, West Derby |
x |
x |
Macclesfield |
8 |
19.3 |
Makerfield |
6 |
27.7 |
Manchester Central |
25 |
10.9 |
Manchester, Gorton |
x |
20.3 |
Manchester, Withington |
4 |
17.8 |
Morecambe and Lunesdale |
8 |
35.3 |
Oldham East and Saddleworth |
10 |
32.5 |
Oldham West and Royton |
7 |
17.7 |
Pendle |
7 |
25.6 |
Preston |
12 |
22.6 |
Ribble Valley |
9 |
19.3 |
Rochdale |
8 |
21.9 |
Rossendale and Darwen |
7 |
28.8 |
Salford and Eccles |
12 |
13.5 |
Sefton Central |
5 |
32.9 |
South Ribble |
7 |
23.8 |
Southport |
9 |
44.2 |
St Helens North |
5 |
22.8 |
St Helens South and Whiston |
13 |
26.0 |
Stalybridge and Hyde |
5 |
32.9 |
Stockport |
10 |
19.7 |
Stretford and Urmston |
15 |
23.7 |
Tatton |
10 |
17.6 |
Wallasey |
4 |
18.2 |
Warrington North |
19 |
24.0 |
Warrington South |
12 |
19.2 |
Weaver Vale |
7 |
15.1 |
West Lancashire |
8 |
21.3 |
Wigan |
11 |
25.4 |
Wirral South |
6 |
22.6 |
Wirral West |
x |
21.1 |
Worsley and Eccles South |
6 |
30.0 |
Wyre and Preston North |
8 |
18.3 |
Wythenshawe and Sale East |
11 |
15.5 |
Contacts:
Jay McKenna
jmckenna@tuc.org.uk
0151 482 2710
07788 414 578
TUC press office
media@tuc.org.uk
020 7467 1248
Want to hear about our latest news and blogs?
Sign up now to get it straight to your inbox
To access the admin area, you will need to setup two-factor authentication (TFA).