Nearly six million jobs, and almost a quarter of jobs outside London, pay less than the living wage, according to a report by the Office for National Statistics.
Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled a plan to introduce a “national living wage” of £9 per hours by 2020 in the first Conservative budget in nearly 20 years.
Next boss Lord Wolfson has been criticised for criticised for being out of touch after he dismissed the Living Wage campaign, saying that £6.70 per hour is “enough to live on”.
The government has named and shamed 70 companies that have failed to pay their workers the national minimum wage, in the hope that it will convince other companies to stop the illegal practice.
Nearly 40% of British families, or 8.1 million people, live below the income level regarded as the minimum needed to play a part on society