{"id":15156,"date":"2018-05-04T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15156"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:46","slug":"young-people-retail-low-wage-stuck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15156","title":{"rendered":"No escape"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Low-wage work has for many people become a sinkhole from which there may be no escaping, new research has shown.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One in five people who were in low-paid roles a decade ago are still barely eking out a living at or just above the minimum wage, according to a new TUC report<\/a>. The retail sector is the worst for pay progression — 42 per cent of low-paid workers in retail are still stuck in low-paid positions ten years later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is bad news for millions of people who work in retail, which is one of the biggest sectors in the economy, providing one in eight jobs and powering 10 per cent of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s total economic output. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even worse news still for young people in the sector, who are most likely to be on the low end of the wage spectrum.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Young people<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Median pay for people aged 18-29 in retail is only \u00c2\u01418.42 per hour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not far above the mandatory minimum wage, whereas median pay for the age group as a whole is near \u00c2\u014110 per hour and for the entire population it is substantially higher at \u00c2\u014112 an hour.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While as a whole, 9 out of 10 low paid teenagers at the beginning of the century managed to escape low pay once they were in their late 20s, only about one in four low paid teenagers in retail moved on to higher-paid positions over the same time period.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Fabian Society, which teamed up with the TUC in their latest report published this week (May 3) said that progression opportunities for the average retail worker are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfew and far between.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRetail is now right at the bottom of the pay and progression league tables, and the sector has developed a reputation as a place where people get stuck rather than get on,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Fabian Society general secretary Andrew Harrop.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The research also found that young people who entered the job market just before the financial crisis are less likely to progress out of low-paid work than young workers generations before them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last year, the TUC asked low-paid young people to keep diaries of their working lives and discovered a pattern \u00e2\u20ac\u201c many reported that they have given up on progressing in their jobs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘Frustrated’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLow point: frustrated on not being able to progress at work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c reminds me how my company doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will leave soon,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 wrote one hospitality worker in London.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another young logistics worker in Birmingham said job progression could only be achieved by \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnot what you know but who you know,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 while an energy worker in Cardiff reported that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bunless you play the game\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 or are \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba yes person\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 then \u00e2\u20ac\u015byou won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t progress or be recognised.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite this sense of hopelessness among young people, especially in low-pay sectors such as retail, Unite \u00e2\u20ac\u201c along with the Fabian Society and TUC \u00e2\u20ac\u201c believe that it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to be this way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The TUC and Fabian Society outlined what both the government and businesses can do to ensure low-paid, dead-end jobs don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t become a permanent reality for a generation of\u00c2\u00a0workers who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come of age after the financial crisis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Among these measures is hiking the minimum wage to \u00c2\u014110 an hour now and tightening regulation on the labour market, such as banning zero hours contracts \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u201c both ideas that Unite and the Labour Party have long backed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The TUC has also called for stronger rights for workers so that they can collectively bargain for better pay, as well as creating new sector bodies made up of government, employers and trade unions to discuss pay, skills, productivity and progression in industries characterised by low pay.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harrop pointed out that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bimproving pay and progression for retail workers can help companies by increasing retention, broadening the pool of talent and improving productivity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe retail sector must come together with the government on an industrial strategy with good jobs at its heart,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TUC general secretary Frances O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady warned that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnless we boost opportunities and pay we risk losing a generation of young workers to dead-end jobs on low pay with no hope of any career progression.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Political choices<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said that low-paid work has become a permanent and pervasive way of life for millions thanks to \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba decade of failed Tory policies and free market fundamentalism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRetail and shop work was once a job of choice for many young people still in education and looking to earn some money working on a Saturday before moving into a career, an apprenticeship or other form of secure, permanent, better paid and full-time work,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bNow more and more people are stuck in jobs for decades that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t offer security or a career, full-time hours or even\u00c2\u00a0enough pay to meet a basic standard of living.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a result of specific political choices and can just as easily be undone by a government prepared to make different choices \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from investment in a growing economy that works for all and the return of sector-level collective bargaining to a serious council house building programme and tax reform that fairly redistributes wealth alongside the banning of zero and short-hours contracts and hiking the minimum wage to a real living wage of \u00c2\u014110ph.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe solutions are well within our grasp. All that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s required is the political will to take action.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He joined O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady in calling all workers to take part in the TUC’s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098New Deal for Working People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 march on May 12 in London.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers deserve so much better,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out more about the TUC march — and how you can book your free transport — here.\u00c2\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Low-wage work has for many people become a sinkhole from which there may be no escaping, new research has shown.   One in five people who were in low-paid roles a decade ago are still barely eking out a living at or just above the minimum wage, according to a new TUC report. The retail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[506,165,71],"wps_subtitle":"1 in 5 people stuck in low-wage work for years","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15156"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26216,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15156\/revisions\/26216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}