Proportion of London residents' jobs paid below London Living Wage by employment type (2005-2024)
Last updated: December 2024
What does this indicator show?
This indicator looks at jobs held by London residents that are paid below the London Living Wage. These jobs may be located within London or outside the capital. For a similar analysis focused on jobs located in London only, please see 'Low-paid jobs in London'.
The London Living Wage was introduced in 2005. It is a voluntary wage rate based on the amount of money that people need to live. The rate in London in April 2024 when the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings we use for this analysis was conducted was £13.15.
What does it tell us?
17.5% of working Londoners are low paid (2024) - slightly higher than in 2023, when 15.7% of Londoners were low paid. This is the first time that the proportion of Londoners that are low paid has increased since 2017. It is still lower than the peak in 2015, when 22.1% of Londoners were low-paid.
Low-paid work is something that is more prevalent in part-time employment. In 2024, 40.8% of Londoners in part-time work were in low-paid jobs compared to just 9.9% of Londoners in full-time work.
Low pay & qualifications
Proportion of London residents' jobs paid below London Living Wage by qualification level (2021)
Looking at Londoners’ low-pay from the perspective of their qualification level, the differences are even larger. Although low pay is an issue faced by a sizeable proportion of Londoners of all qualification levels, those with higher qualification levels are less likely to be low paid.
More than 6 in 10 working Londoners without qualifications are low-paid,compared to just above 1 in 10 for those educated to degree level. This is in line with analysis of low paid jobs in London that finds the highest proportion to be among elementary occupations.
Low pay & employment status
Proportion of London residents' jobs paid below London Living Wage by permanent/non-permanent employment status (2021)
Londoners in non-permanent employment are considerably more likely to be low paid than those in permanent employment. The proportion of Londoners in non-permanent employment, who are low paid is much higher than the London average (17.5%), and 16 percentage points higher than those in permanent employment.
Want to know more?
If you want to explore this data in more depth, check the 'data source and notes' button on the above charts. This will tell you where the data comes from, where you may be able to dig deeper.
Or find out more about the London Living Wage using the link below.