UK – More workers trapped in minimum wage jobs

A growing number of employees are trapped in minimum wage jobs, according to a report that illustrates the hollowing out of Britain’s labour market.

One in 20 employees earned only the minimum wage in 2013, the highest proportion since its introduction, according to the Resolution Foundation, a think-tank.

It also highlights the “shadow effect” of the minimum wage, with a further 10 per cent of employees earning within 50p of the hourly rate. A third of those earning within 50p of the minimum wage have been in this position for more than five years, with one in five similarly stuck for at least 10 years.

Matthew Whittaker, chief economist at the Resolution Foundation, said the minimum wage had been very effective at “more or less eradicating extreme low pay, but what it has not done is send waves up through the wage distribution”.

While the proportion of low-paid workers has remained fairly constant since the mid 1990s, since 2009 the number of workers earning less than a living wage – an amount that is assumed to provide a full-time worker with a minimum standard of living – has rocketed from 3.4m to 4.9m in April 2013, the report found.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Rise in UK workers trapped in minimum wage jobs – FT.com.