UK care workers are missing out on minimum wage
10/02/2015
Over a tenth of UK care workers are not being paid the minimum wage of £6.50 per hour, according to research from The Resolution Foundation.
The Resolution Foundation, an independent research and policy organisation found that approximately 160,000 people are missing out on an average of £815 a year. This is because some companies did not pay their employees when they were training, travelling between clients, or “on call”. This is against the law and Ministers have said they will start taking action against any employers who have done this.
The legal minimum wage regulations relate to all adults over 21 years of age. They address the fact that employees should be paid for travelling in connection with work and any training done in normal working hours.
The Resolution Foundation found that the total amount that care staff are missing out on is estimated to be about £130 million a year.
Laura Gardiner, a policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said:
"Diminishing public funding and ever tighter commissioning practices are placing great pressure on care providers, but there is simply no excuse for breaking the law."
"As well as helping to attract and retain staff and boosting the incomes of low-paid workers, better pay would ultimately lead to improvements in care quality."
The Resolution Foundation has now called for national and local government as well as social care providers to address its concerns.
The UK care industry has often been plagued with accusations of low pay. Recent cuts to funding and a rapidly aging population has contributed to this.
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