We’ve clapped for the carers but with 1.3 million of them in low-paid insecure work we need to pay them

Research by the Living Wage Foundation and the New Economics Foundation has found 5 million Britons are stuck in insecure, poorly paid jobs, says James Moore. If action isn’t taken their numbers will only grow

Tory MPs have been keen to show themselves clapping on the carers but they haven’t (yet) done very much for them (Getty)

What would carers prefer? A nationwide clap to mark the 72nd birthday of the NHS or a living wage and guaranteed regular hours?

I’m betting on the latter. While the claps that have taken place up and down Britain were well intentioned – and well deserved, given that some of the workers being applauded were, and sometimes still are, literally risking their lives – they haven’t yet changed the fact that 1.3 million of the recipients were in insecure work paying less than the real living wage.

By that, I refer to what’s calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, based on what a worker requires to fund a decent basic standard of living. It currently stands at £9.30 an hour in most of the UK, £10.75 in London to reflect the higher cost of living in the capital.

This is distinct from what the government likes to call the “national living wage”. It is supposed to reach 66 per cent per cent of UK median earnings by 2024, but is calculated without reference to the cost of living and only applies to over-25s.

While more than 6,000 employers have voluntarily become accredited living wage employers, the foundation is this morning publishing research in conjunction with the New Economics Foundation which found that there were more than 5 million people earning less while working in insecure jobs, including those 1.3 million key workers.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that despite the prime minister loudly touting what he described as the “progress” made in Britain towards achieving racial equality, a disproportionate number of them were black and minority ethnic workers. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that a disproportionate number of them were also women.

In some parts of the the UK nearly one in every five workers were found to be in insecure, low-paid jobs. In the worst affected region, Northern Ireland, the figure was 19 per cent.

Now, here’s where it starts to get really disturbing. During the last economic crisis the number of people in this sort of employment peaked in 2013, at 1.5 million more than in 2008 when the recession began.

A lot of the people who returned to work after losing their jobs, or who entered the labour market in those five years, found themselves on the wrong side of a raw deal.

With the unemployment rate in Britain set to rise sharply as a result of the current economic crisis, we could be due a repeat of that.

That damn is set to burst very soon, and it won’t be pretty.

But the recovery doesn’t have to resemble the one that followed the 2008 crisis.

There is a recognition from some employers that capitalism is in need of reform. Some of them have even been talking about taking action.

Sandy MacDonald, head of corporate sustainability at Standard Life Aberdeen, an asset manager and life insurer, said alongside the release of the research: “As we build back, we have an opportunity to do things differently.”

Given its clout, one would hope the company is prepared to make that point as part of its engagement with investee companies. One would also hope that it is prepared to use its voting power to force change.

What would surely help is if the asset management industry were to push companies to appoint employee directors and to set an example themselves. Only a small handful of companies currently have them.

But action is also required from the government. Its MPs have been keen to show themselves clapping on the carers but they haven’t (yet) done very much for them.

I’ll leave you, and them, with the views of Carol, a care worker spoken to by the researchers.

“It’s been heartwarming to see how we have been supported by the public during the pandemic and we are grateful for every person who has clapped for carers. But applause is not enough, and we have been underpaid and undervalued for far too long,” she said.

“It’s time for the government to step in and guarantee the real living wage for all care workers.”