Thousands of key workers in East Sussex earn less than the real living wage, data reveals

An estimated 40,000 workers in the county earn less than the real living wage, according to figures from the BBC Shared Data Unit.

These include hospital cleaners, porters, carers and others classed as key workers during the coronavirus crisis.

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The GMB union said the pandemic had shone a light on the ‘rock-bottom pay’ of the people ‘expected to risk their health to protect us’.

The real living wage is calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, which argues the government’s National Living Wage is not high enough to meet workers’ needs.

Based on costs such as food, clothing and household bills, it currently stands at £9.30 an hour for those working outside London.

It is separate to the statutory National Living Wage – the legally-binding hourly rate for workers aged 25 and over – which was raised to £8.72 an hour from 1 April.

In Eastbourne, an estimated 21.3 per cent of workers were paid below the Real Living Wage in 2019 – around 8,000 people in total, according to the figures.

Hastings has 23.2 per cent of employees earning below £9.30 an hour, some 7,000 people. While in Lewes 20 per cent of employees earn beneath the living wage, 5,000 people.

And over in Brighton and Hove 21,000 people were estimated to be in low paid jobs in 2019, which is 15.9 per cent of overall employees in the area.

Jobs most likely to be paid below the Real Living Wage include shelf fillers (91.8 per cent), retail cashiers and check out operators (74.9 per cent), cleaners (73.7 per cent) and pharmacy assistants (72.9 per cent).

Others include hospital porters (48.7 per cent), refuse collectors (28.5 per cent) and ambulance staff – excluding paramedics (19.6 per cent).

Lola McEvoy, GMB Union Organiser, called for key workers’ wages to be raised, saying, “It’s simply wrong that over three million of the most vital jobs in our society pay so little that those doing them live with the compounding stress of falling behind with rent and spiralling into debt.”

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said, “It is right we ensure the lowest paid are fairly rewarded for their contribution to the economy, particularly those working in essential services during the biggest threat this country has faced in decades.

“This year’s increase to the National Living Wage means we will be putting an extra £930 a year into the pockets of 2.4 million of the UK’s lowest paid workers.”

Who are the key workers?

Key workers are people whose jobs are vital to public health and safety during the coronavirus crisis.

In order to ensure they can continue to carry out their jobs, their children are able to go to school and they can use public transport.

Katherine Chapman, of the Living Wage Foundation, said it was ‘incredibly important’ that key workers were paid a living wage.

Hospital cleaners, shelf-stackers and carers were ‘putting their health on the line to keep us safe’, she said, yet almost two-thirds of cleaners and over a third of care workers and in-home carers currently earn less than the real Living Wage.

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