Research conducted by Markit for KPMG has found that one in five people in the UK are still earning below the real Living Wage.
This means that an estimated 5.5 million employees are struggling to get out of in-work poverty.
The total number earning below the real Living Wage is down by 100,000 compared to 2016 – This is the first reduction in five years, but still leaves total a million higher than in 2012.
Other key findings are:
- Four times as many respondents earning less than the real Living Wage indicated that their household finances had worsened than those that experienced an improvement in October 2017
- One in four (26 percent) of female employees earn less than the real Living Wage, compared to 16 percent of all males. In numerical terms this equates to 3.4 million female employees versus 2.1 million male employees
- Some 42 percent of part-time workers now earn less than the real Living Wage, compared with 13 percent full-time workers
- Regionally, Northern Ireland has the highest proportion of jobs earning below the real Living Wage at 26 percent, followed by the East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber, Wales and the West Midlands all at around 24 percent
Find out more information by downloading the KPMG Living Wage 2017 report.
