Low pay Is "endemic"

The richest 10% of British households had an average of £1.32m in net property, pension and financial wealth, five times the wealth of the bottom half of households

A quarter of low paid workers are permanently stuck in poorly paid jobs in the UK with little chance of earning more, according to new research by the Social Mobility Commission, with women more likely to get stuck on low pay  and a particular issue for women in their early 20s and said a lack of "good quality, flexible work" for those with child caring responsibilities was to blame.

It found just one in six low paid workers had managed to escape from poorly paid jobs in the last decade.

On average, people stuck on low pay have seen their hourly wages rise by just 40p in real terms over the last decade, compared to a £4.83 pay rise for those who have permanently "escaped", said the report.

The report defines low pay as hourly earnings below two-thirds of the median hourly wage, which was £8.10 last year. The median hourly wage for an average person across the entire British workforce was £12.10 per hour in 2016.

The industries with the lowest paid jobs are retail and hospitality as some employers in the hospitality and retail industries try to keep overheads down with low-paid jobs

"This lack of pay progress can have a huge scarring effect on people's lifetime living standards," Conor Darcy, a senior policy analyst with think tank Resolution Foundation, which carried out the research, said.