Cost-of-living crisis | Number of jobs paid below real Living Wage rises for first time since 2020

New analysis of the latest Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), by the Living Wage Foundation, reveals that the number of low paid jobs has risen for the first time since 2020, with 3.7 million UK jobs, or one in eight, paid below the real Living Wage in April 2023, 200,000 more than a year earlier.

The hospitality sector has the highest rate of low paid jobs, with nearly half (48.1%) of all jobs in the sector paid below the real Living Wage. This is roughly twice as high as the next two sectors with the highest rate of low pay; ‘arts, entertainment and recreation’ (24.7%) and ‘retail and wholesale’ (23.2%). Hospitality has been the sector with the highest level of low paid jobs for 12 years running.  

Recent Living Wage Foundation research shows hospitality businesses could benefit from paying staff the real Living Wage, with 66% of Londoners polled saying they would be more likely to choose such venues and 60% willing to pay more for them. 

The region with the highest rate of low paid jobs is the North East (15.9%), closely followed by East Midlands (15.7%) and Northern Ireland (15.6%).