BRITAIN is on course to “eliminate” low pay by the mid-2020s after a dramatic fall in workers on meagre money.
A think tank said the proportion of workers on low-pay – two thirds of hourly average earnings – fell to 17.1 per cent last year.
This marks the lowest level since 1980.
And the Resolution Foundation said proposed hikes to the minimum wage meant the scourge of low pay could be over for good by 2025.
Nye Cominetti, the think tank’s economic analyst, said: “The National Living Wage has transformed Britain’s low pay landscape.”
Resolution’s figures claim the number of low-paid workers fell by 200,000 last year to 4.65million.
The numbers have come down by nearly a million since 2015.
It’s a huge boost for Theresa May’s legacy following her emotional resignation last week.
She vowed to help the “just about managing” when she entered No.10 in 2016.
Resolution said the programme of increases to the legal minimum wage had mostly helped staff across the high street, admin and support service sectors.
Critically the higher pay level has not any “significant negative impact” on employment.
Resolution said jobs growth had been fastest among groups “disproportionately likely” to be on the minimum wage.
The legal minimum is currently £8.21 an hour for the over 25s.
But Chancellor Philip Hammond wants to set an “ambitious” new target for the mid-2020s.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “This report is clear – working people can have a real pay rise without jobs suffering.
“That’s why the Government should raise the minimum wage to £10 per hour as soon as possible, and young workers, who are most likely to be stuck on low pay, must be given the same rate for the job.”
