Low pay falling across the North West

Low pay rose in 72% of the 25 local authorities with the highest rates of below real Living Wage pay between 2024 and 2025.

This is in contrast with the national picture, with the UK overall seeing a modest decrease in low pay, from 4.6 million low paid jobs to 4.4 million.

The findings highlight a widening gap between the areas worst hit by in-work poverty and the rest of the UK.

New research shows also that if half of low paid jobs were given a pay rise to the real Living Wage, it could put up to £1.6 billion back into the UK economy

In the North West, the rate of low pay fell from 16.7% to 14.9% between 2024 and 2025. That’s equivalent to 514,000 low paid jobs in 2024 falling to 491,000 low paid jobs in 2025. The North West has the sixth highest rate of low paid work in the UK (about in the middle and only slightly above the UK average of 14.6% of jobs).

If half of the North West’s 491,000 low paid jobs were uplifted to the real Living Wage, the boost to the economy is estimated to be £143.5 million.

There are 1,626 accredited Living Wage Employers in the North West who deliver pay rises in line with the cost of living to over 46,000 workers in the real Living Wage every year.

The local authorities with the highest rates of low pay are clustered in certain regions: 11 are in London, five in the West Midlands, and four in the East of England.

The three local authorities with the highest rates of low pay are all in London: Redbridge (34.5%), Barking and Dagenham (31.2%) and Haringey (29.7%).

The three local authorities with the biggest annual increases in rates of low pay were all part of the 25 that already had the highest levels of in-work poverty: Merthyr Tydfil in Wales (13.3 percentage points), Merton in London (9.9 percentage points) and Lichfield in the West Midlands (7.7 percentage points).