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THE government’s transfer of cash from Britain’s worst-off to the wealthy has caused a record five million working people to be driven into low-paid jobs.
Research group the Resolution Foundation said the numbers earning less than two-thirds of average hourly pay — £7.69 an hour — increased by 250,000 last year to 5.2 million.
While the coalition boasts of new jobs created, many are low-paid, casual and based on zero-hours contracts where workers are called in when needed and laid off unpaid when not needed.
The Resolution Foundation involves economists and academics who work to improve the living standards of Britain’s lowest-paid workers.
Its latest research revealed that workers in Britain are more likely to be low-paid than those in comparable economies such as Germany and Australia.
The foundation’s chief economist Matthew Whittaker said: “While recent months have brought much welcome news on the number of people moving into employment, the squeeze on real earnings continues. While low pay is likely to be better than no pay at all, it’s troubling that the number of low-paid workers across Britain reached a record high last year.”
He said economic growth alone would not solve the low pay problem.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Last weekend 90,000 joined our march to call for a pay rise for workers across Britain and this report shows why.
“Many of the jobs created since the crash are very much of the low-paid, casual and zero-hours variety. This risks many people and their families simply being left behind, unable to share in any benefit from the economic recovery — while those at the top take an increasing share of the nation’s wealth.
“What’s more, once in a low-paid job it can be hard, if not nigh on impossible to get higher-paid work. Without a new approach it’s quite likely that the overwhelming majority of the five million workers currently in low-paid work will still be stuck there a decade from now.”
Catherine McKinnell MP, Labour’s shadow treasury minister, said Labour would increase the statutory minimum wage to £8 an hour — but not until 2020.
