Low Pay — A Trade Union Perspective

Abstract

The issue of low pay is one of traditional and legitimate trade union concern. Whilst the TUC would not accept that there is anything self-evident or self-perpetuating about the poor always being with us, the existence of underpaid, underprivileged and undervalued workers poses considerable economic and social problems and costs. Substantial evidence continues to emerge about the existence of an underclass of marginal workers who are effectively entrapped in those areas of employment which attract the lowest wage rates, the worst working conditions and, perhaps most worrying, the least chance of upward mobility within the job market. However, the profile of this worker has changed since the Beveridge prototype. It is no longer the case that the marginal worker is male and working in a sweatshop in a declining region of the UK. It is increasingly the case that such workers are female and frequently employed part-time in the public sector.

Produced by the Economic Department of the TUC, September 1989.