A quarter of all jobs in Flintshire pay less than the living wage – and it isnt improving!

Over a quarter of all jobs in Flintshire pay less than the living wage – the minimum income deemed necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs.
Around 17,000 jobs in Flintshire pay paid less than the proposed £7.85 living wage in 2014 according to figures released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

*Not to be confused with the national minimum wage which is the minimum pay per hour almost all workers are entitled to by law.

Flintshire Business Week – the annual back slapping and networking event celebrating Flintshire’s finest will kick off tomorrow October 13th, with a host of events on the planner showcasing the county’s great and good, will any Flintshire based business be ready to announce they are adopting the living wage?

There are more than 1,800 accredited living wage employers in the UK, with 200 having agreed to pay at this level in recent months.

According to the Living Wage Foundation there are currently NO accredited employers in Flintshire paying the Living Wage currently.

However, this doesn’t include UK-wide employers who have adopted the living wage such as Lidl who announced a company wide adoption on mainland UK.

Wales Best and Worst;
Caerphilly appears to have the least number of workers earning less than the living wage at around 18.6%, Gwynedd the highest with 33.3% earning lower than that deemed needed to cover basic needs, neighbouring Wrexham has 28.4% of its eligible workforce earning less than the living wage while Chester has 25.4% below the level.

Talking about the latest set of figures released today a spokesman for the Living Wage Foundation said:

“Despite significant progress in many sectors, more jobs than ever are below the voluntary living wage rates that we recommend.
“These figures demonstrate that while the economy may be recovering as a whole, there is a real problem with ensuring everyone benefits, and low pay in still prevalent in Britain today.

The latest figures also indicate accross the UK the proportion of workers who are not being paid the living wage is increasing.

The Office for National Statistics said six million workers in Britain are paid under the hourly rate, there are only 3 years worth of estimates available however the ONS figures show the proportion of employee jobs paid less than the living wage rose from 21% in April 2012 to 23% in April 2014.”

The real number of workers is likely to be higher say the ONS as they excluded people under 18 and workers on the youth, training, and apprenticeship rates of the minimum wage.