Two-tiers: economy, not trains

Two-tier workforce condemning millions to low-paid jobs, study warns | Money | The Observer: "The study by the independent Resolution Foundation, entitled Low Pay Britain 2013, will highlight fears that the return to growth and higher employment is masking an ever-wider divide between people in low-skilled work and those in an upper tier of more stable, skilled, managerial and professional jobs.

The report comes as the three main political parties wrestle with ways to address the gulf between declining real wages for millions and the increasing cost of living, as they plan for the 2015 general election.

Labour will put its support for a "living wage" – higher than the minimum wage and judged as necessary for a decent standard of living – at the heart of its next election manifesto, citing it as one measure to help ease what it calls a crisis of living standards.

Low pay (defined as two-thirds of gross hourly median pay, £7.44 an hour in 2012) is becoming more prevalent among the young, the report says, and the trend seems to be continuing even as the economy improves.

Today more than one in three people aged 16-30 (2.4 million) are low-paid, compared with one in five in the 1970s (1.7 million at that time)."

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