News / Economy

Poverty forcing UK women into low-paid jobs: Report

Sunday, 08 March 2015 4:47 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 08 March 2015 4:47 PM ]

Women at a Job Centre in the UK (file photo)

A new study says rising poverty in Britain has left a record number of women with no choice but to opt for low-paying jobs.

The study by the Trades Union Congress has revealed that many female workers are cleaners, babysitters and hairdressers with low wages, adding that opportunities for more lucrative posts are much limited.

The research also shows that many working women are pensioners who have to do a job to make their end meets.

The number of women working beyond retirement age has almost doubled since 2007, with about 445,000 women aged 65 or more now in work.

According to the report, millions of women were driven to the workplace following the 2007 financial crash. There are now more than 14 million women who earn a meager 20 pounds per week on average.

Also, pay has fallen across the board. Women’s average wages are down 6 percent, making them more than £20 a week worse off in real terms than they were in 2008. Those working part-time earn 38 percent less per hour than their male colleagues.

Underemployment is an issue for many women workers, with a 41 percent rise in those wanting to work longer hours.

Meanwhile, other reports point to gender pay gap in the UK. The overall gender pay gap is at its lowest point in history, but men still earn on average 19.1 percent more than women, and female MPs make up less than a quarter of parliament, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The ILO report cites an analysis from 2005 showing that women with two children in the UK can expect to earn 25 percent less than a childless woman.

Now William Spring, a London-based political commentator, believes, “There is no way around the fact that women tend to be the bottom of the pile; particularly women coming into Britain who are not fully documented who are from common-wealth countries or European Union.”

Spring told Press TV’s UK Desk on Sunday that, “I think the basic attitude is that the ethos of UK and also the USA and all the Anglo-Saxon or the white countries is very male-dominated in business.”

The latest study also reveals there has been a surge in self-employment, which has accounted for half of the overall net growth in women’s employment since 2008, rising from 1.05 million to 1.45 million by the end of last year.

HRK/GHN

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