Proportion of London residents' jobs paid below London Living Wage by employment type (2005-2023)
This page 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 2023 when the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings we use for this analysis was conducted was £11.95.
The proportion of low-paid jobs held by Londoners has increased slightly in 2023 (16.4%) compared to 2022 (16.2%); this follows a steady decline since 2018 that partially reflects the distorting effects of the pandemic and furlough in the labour market. There had been a continuous rise in the proportion of low-paid jobs over the decade to 2015, when a peak of 22.1% of jobs held by Londoners were low-paid.
Low-paid work is something that is more prevalent in part-time employment. In 2023, 41.8% of Londoners in part-time work were in low-paid jobs compared to just 9.7% of Londoners in full-time work.
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, and in line with the analysis of low pay jobs in London that found the highest proportion to be among elementary occupations.
Data shows that the higher the qualification level of Londoners, the less likely they are to be low-paid. While more than 3 in 5 working Londoners without qualifications are low-paid, this proportion is just above 1 in 10 for those educated to degree level. Notwithstanding these differences, this also shows that low-pay is pervasive across the different qualification levels of Londoners, albeit unevenly.
Proportion of London residents' jobs paid below London Living Wage by permanent/non-permanent employment status (2021)
In terms of type of contract, the proportion of Londoners in low-paid jobs in non-permanent employment is significantly above average, and 16 percentage points higher than their neighbours in permanent employment.
