Following recent news that 5.5M working people in the UK earn less than the Living Wage, further findings reveal women are hit hardest by low pay in the UK. Contributor Living Wage Foundation Director, Katherine Chapman.

Women make up nearly two thirds (62 percent) of workers currently struggling to make ends meet on less than the real Living Wage. This amounts to 3.4 million women compared to 2.1 million men. Nearly 1/3 of all UK working women (26 percent) are still earning less than the Living Wage, compared to just 16 percent of all working men.

This trend has been the case since 2011, when KPMG and the Living Wage Foundation launched its annual Living Wage report. Further research from the Living Wage Foundation has also found that there are serious consequences for working mothers who earn below the real Living Wage, with four in ten (42 percent) admitting they have skipped meals for financial reasons.

Recent ONS data shows the gender pay gap is not closing. The average for full-time workers stands at 14.1 percent a figure that hasn’t changed in the last three years. Women’s employment in the UK is highly concentrated in particular industries and occupations and this concentration is a major cause of low pay for women. Cardiff Business School, have recently under gone research looking into the gender impact of the Living Wage and the positive impact the Living Wage plays on women’s incomes in the low pay sector.

The research highlights that females were more likely to be in part-time jobs (77 percent), and found the top occupations in which women are the majority of employees being, general administrative occupations (79.4 percent), personal assistants (97.7 percent) and receptionists (89.2 percent). The results from the research highlight that the Living Wage has substantial positive effects on women’s earning in low pay roles like these.

Commenting on the number of women earning below the real Living Wage and Equal Pay Day, Living Wage Foundation Director, Katherine Chapman said: “These figures show that more can be done to reduce the 3.4 million working women earning less than the real Living Wage across the UK. Women make up nearly two thirds of the 5.5 million people in low paid roles, who are feeling the squeeze as inflation rises. Equal Pay Day highlights the need to keep the conversation going on the realities of the gender pay gap and to encourage more organisations to pay a real Living Wage that will benefit women and part time workers nationwide.

“Earlier this week we announced the new Living Wage rates, which will mean cost of living pay rises for tens of thousands of women. It’s fantastic that over the last 12 months more than 1000 organisations have joined our network of 3,600 Living Wage employer who choose to go beyond the legal minimum and pay a real Living Wage, putting fairness and respect at the heart of their business. I hope next year we will see even more success and less people, both men and women on low wages.”

The Living Wage rates are independently calculated, based on the real cost of living in the UK and London. The 2017 increases have been largely driven by higher inflation feeding through to the basket of goods and services that underpin the rates, with rising private rents and transport costs also having an impact.

Over 3,600, employers across the UK, including a third of the FTSE 100, household names IKEA, Aviva, Nationwide, Chelsea and Everton Football Clubs and Google, as well as thousands of small businesses, who are choosing to pay the real Living Wage to ensure all staff, including onsite contractors, earn a wage that meets the real cost of living.