23 February 2018

Low pay damages both family life and worker health, a new study commissioned by the Living Wage Foundation has shown.

Polling by Survation found that nearly one in four full-time workers earning less than the living wage believe their lack of money has had a negative impact on their relationship with their children, while 24% said it has damaged ties with their close friends and family, and 32% said it had hurt their relationship with their partner.

Almost three quarters - 71% of the 1,016 parents surveyed - said they worry so much that it affects their day-to-day life, while 35% said they always, or quite often, feel lonely.

The issues raised by the study are likely to affect a large proportion of the population, as research by KPMG recently found that 21% of workers - around 5.5 milion people - in the UK earn less than the living wage.

Katherine Chapman, Director of the Living Wage Foundation, described the "corrosive effects of low pay on family life" as "shocking".

"Many parents are earning too little to provide their children with the basics, like a warm winter coat. What’s worse is that they’re also stuck in jobs that require them to work long, anti-social hours away from their children and report feeling lonely. The stress this places on families is immense."

The Institute for Employment Rights recommends a reform to the framework of labour law in order to effect a sustainable solution to the low pay problem.

While we support the replacing of the Low Pay Commission with a Living Wage Commission - which would ensure that the minimum wage always adequately covers the cost of living - individual statutory rights do not go far enough to protect workers.

The 15 leading lawyers and academics that authored our influential Manifesto for Labour Law - 25 proposals for reform - recommend the reinstatement of sectoral collective bargaining: a process by which employers' associations and trade unions negotiate wages and conditions across entire industries.

Much modern research has shown that this system, which is widely used across Europe, is the most effective way to lift pay and reduce income inequality.

Click here to read more about our Manifesto for Labour Law