Young workers face low pay problems

Low pay will remain an ongoing problem for young workers despite significant wage rises announced by the government in last year’s Autumn Statement, research from the Resolution Foundation has found.

The think tank’s report, Narrowing the Youth Gap, points out that a reduction to the age threshold of the National Living Wage and a boost to the minimum wage youth rates made young low-paid workers “the big winners” of chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s announcement.

But, it says, under-25 year-old workers are still more than twice as likely to be in low pay as those aged 25-64, while 64% of young women with children and 48% of young disabled people are in low weekly pay, “challenges that can’t be overcome by a higher minimum wage alone”.