Cost-of-living crisis: Almost one in ten employees in Scotland earn below real living wage

Almost one in ten employees in Scotland earn below the real living wage of £10.90 per hour.

Figures published by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) show 9 per cent of employees in Scotland earn less than this benchmark, compared with 12.2 per cent across the UK.

Meanwhile, the gender pay gap in Scotland was still 12 per cent in 2022, but had fallen by 14 percentage points since 1997.

SPICe published the information using the 2022 earnings data from the Office for National Statistics.

Data shows 9 per cent of employees earned below the real living wage of £10.90 per hour.

It shows the typical salary for all employees in Scotland was £27,710 in April last year – just below the UK-wide figure of £27,756. However, the typical salary for full-time employees in Scotland was £33,332, which is just above the UK-wide figure of £33,000.

More than 30 per cent of 18 to 24-year-old employees earned below the real living wage, figures show. More than 10 per cent of women earned less than it, compared with 7.5 per cent of men.

A total of 45 per cent of accommodation and food service employees earned below £10.90 per hour.

The real living wage is an independently calculated rate based on the cost of living, and takes into account housing, childcare, transport and heating costs.

Richard Lochhead, the SNP minister for employment and fair work, said: “A record proportion of employees aged 18 and over in Scotland are being paid the real living wage or more. The Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings published in October showed 91 per cent of employees aged 18 and over earned at least the real living wage in 2022, the highest proportion since the real living wage series began in 2012. In comparison, 87.5 per cent of employees aged 18 and over in England were paid the real living wage or more in 2022, 88.2 per cent in Wales and 85.4 per cent in Northern Ireland.

“The ONS survey also confirmed that the gender pay gap was lower in Scotland than across the UK as a whole. For full-time employees in 2022, the gap was 3.7 per cent compared with the UK figure of 8.3 per cent while the gender pay gap for all employees in Scotland was 12.2 per cent compared to 14.9 per cent for all employees in the UK.

“The Scottish Government is committed to tackling the cost-of-living crisis with a fair work approach, ensuring workers are paid at least the real living wage – currently £10.90 per hour – and supporting more women into jobs through flexible working opportunities.”