Workers in Scotland are less likely to earn under the Living Wage than those anywhere else in the UK outside the south east of England, new research indicates.
The real Living Wage currently sits at £8.75 per hour outside London, where it is £10.20 per hour.
A study conducted by IHS Markit for professional services firm KPMG, found 19% of employees in Scotland earned under the Living Wage, compared to 22% across the UK as a whole.
The area where workers were most likely not to be paid the voluntary rate was joint between Northern Ireland and the East Midlands, both at 26%.
Meanwhile, in the south east of England 18% of employees were paid at least the hourly figure, falling to 20% in London.
In both Scotland and the UK as a whole, the percentage of jobs paying less than the rate grew by one percentage point between 2017 and 2018.
Scotland has the lowest proportion of female workers earning under the Living Wage at 22%, compared to 27% across the UK, however the UK figure remains 10 percentage points above that of male workers.
Part-time workers are twice as likely to be paid below the Living Wage in Scotland, with 37% below the threshold compared to 11% of full-time workers.
UK-wide more than one in four part-time workers (43%) are paid under the figure.
The age group most likely to miss out on the Living Wage are those aged 18 to 21, affecting almost seven out of 10 (68%) of these workers.
Calculated on an annual basis by the Resolution Foundation and overseen by the Living Wage Commission according to the basic cost of living in the UK and London, the so-called real Living Wage is voluntary for employers and applies to all employees aged 18 and over.
It differs from the UK-Government set National Living Wage of £7.83 an hour for those aged 25 and over and from the National Minimum Wage which ranges from £3.70 to £7.38 an hour depending on age and status.
Jenny Stewart, Partner at KPMG in Scotland, said: “Scotland still has 435,000 workers paid below the Living Wage, and progress seems to have stalled with 19% of the workforce paid below the Living Wage compared to 18% last year.
“While this is lower than the UK-wide average, there is still much headway to be made.
“If you’re one of the following – a part-time worker, or under the age of 21, or female – you are much more likely to be paid less than £8.75 per hour.”
She stressed a collective approach is needed, adding: “For businesses, it is possible to make the change and focus on the benefits the real Living Wage can bring – including improved staff morale, rising service standards and increased productivity.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here