UK’s national living wage sees numbers of low-paid workers fall
The UK has experienced its largest fall in low-paid workers since the 1970s, after the introduction last year of the national living wage (NLW) of £7.50 per hour for employees aged 25 and above, according to think-tank the Resolution Foundation. Over 300,000 people on low incomes have had their pay boosted by the NLW. Around 19% of workers, or 5.1 million individuals, are currently low-paid, down from 21% (5.4 million) last year. For the first time since the 1980s, low-paid workers constitute less than one in five of the total. Of such workers, 61% are women.

This is our seventh annual report on the prevalence of low pay in Britain. It uses the latest data available (April 2016) to map out the scale of low pay and the groups that are most affected.