The ‘living wage’, low pay and in work poverty: Rethinking the relationships

Abstract

The ‘living wage’ is an idea with a long history in the UK currently enjoying a renaissance. This article explores possible reasons for its re-emergence as a policy demand, but argues that thinking of low pay primarily as ‘poverty pay’ caused by employers’ failure to pay a living wage raises practical and conceptual issues that are problematic. It examines to what extent recent attempts to resolve such issues in the UK and elsewhere have succeeded, and concludes by suggesting that alternative ways of analysing and addressing the two key issues associated with the living wage, low pay and in work poverty, are required.