Tax credits and benefits play a crucial role in lifting low-paid workers out of poverty, according to new research published by the TUC.
An analysis by economist Howard Reed for the TUC, based on a range of fictional households, shows that low-paid workers need both decent pay rises and help from tax credits and benefits if they are to make ends meet.
There were 279,000 jobs in April 2013 that paid less than the national minimum wage, according to new figures released by the Office for National Statistics.
The estimate relates to all jobs held by people aged 16 and over, and is based on data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).
Almost three-quarters of those workers who were on low pay in 2002 failed to escape from it over the course of the following decade, reveals a new study from the Resolution Foundation think tank.
The study uses data from the New Earnings Survey Panel Dataset, a longitudinal version of the Annual Survey for Hours and Earnings (New Earnings Survey before 2004).
Some of the lowest-paid workers could get pay rises under plans drawn up by Labour leader Ed Miliband. If the party wins the next election, Miliband says Labour will offer firms a 12-month tax break in 2016 if they agree to pay the 'living wage'.
The number of people paid less than a 'living wage' has jumped by more than 400,000 in a year to over 5.2 million, says a report for the international tax and auditing firm KPMG.
The research was based on the Office for National Statistics Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings for 2012, which included approximately 182,000 returns.
As many as 320,000 people have been trapped on the lowest rung of the pay ladder for five years or more, it has been revealed in a new report from the Resolution Foundation think tank.
The report examines the length of time people remain on the minimum wage, and the characteristics of those groups of workers who remain stuck on it for longest. It uses data from the Annual Survey of Household Earnings and New Earnings Survey Panel Dataset.
As many as 21 per cent of London workers – 625,000 people in total – are paid below the London 'living wage', according to researchers at the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion.
Their report, published by the Trust for London charity, explores the extent of low-paid work in the capital, the barriers to progression, ‘what works’ in supporting progression, and how policy and delivery could be improved in the future.
This conceptual note explores work, paid and unpaid, looks at how the PSE research can examine the impact of the trend to an economy based on higher levels of low pay and insecurity and the impact of this on the extent to which paid work reduces poverty. The PSE also explores the quality of work in terms of aspects such as job security, control, flexibility, physical and social environment, anti-social hours and overall satisfaction. And finally the PSE study explores unpaid work and captures estimates of time spend on various forms of unpaid work covering work in the house, caring and voluntary work.
There has been much debate on the merits of tackling inequality by prioritising ‘pre-distribution` - of attempting to achieve a more equal distribution of the cake before turning to ‘redistribution’ through tax and benefits. Stewart Lansley examines the possible impact of a number of measures on wage levels and the wage share.
Further government action on low pay is needed to help tackle the problem of in-work poverty, according to a report from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.
The Commission – an official advisory body chaired by former Labour minister Alan Milburn – was asked by the coalition government to give its view on what further steps could reasonably be taken to improve social mobility.