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Characteristics of those paid below the National Minimum Wage
Shows that it is not possible to accurately measure how many of these employees may be paid legitimately
Authors: Sarah Conn, Stephen Hicks, Jenny Johnson
Economic & Labour Market Review, vol 3, no 1, pp 67-73. ISSN: 1751-8334
Using the UK Labour Force Survey (LFS), this article looks at the characteristics of employees in jobs paying below the National Minimum Wage (NMW). It shows that it is not possible to accurately estimate from the LFS how many of these may be legitimately paid below the NMW and therefore how many are a result of non-compliance with the law. It considers methodological reasons why some employees may be recorded as being paid below the NMW in the LFS when in reality they are not. It also shows it is important to interpret estimates of low pay from the LFS in light of the methodological limitations of the survey for measuring low pay and also when comparing with estimates available from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
Published in web format: 20 January 2009 at 9:30 am
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