According to new research by the TUC, over forty per cent of women working part time in Salford are paid less than the Living Wage of £7.45 per hour. This despite Salford City Council becoming a Living Wage Employer by paying all its staff the increased above-poverty amount.
Salford comes twentieth out of thirty local authority areas in the North West low pay league table with a rate of 40.2% of part time working women paid below the Living Wage. Top of the North West low pay league, and the whole country, is West Lancashire with a 60.4% rate, second is Pendle with 52.2% and third is St Helens with 51.9%.
Manchester compares much better than any of these places, and Salford, with a rate of 34.1% - but still means a third of all women working part time are paid below the Living Wage.
"In-work poverty is growing throughout the North West and it's often women that bear the brunt of low pay" says North West TUC Regional Secretary Lynn Collins "The Living Wage was created so that work can provide staff with a basic standard of living. But in places like West Lancashire and Pendle, most women working part-time are way off earning this. But they aren't the only ones and the figures show that much more can be done across Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.
"Women would gain most from a greater take-up of the Living Wage by employers. Councils can lead the way by becoming living wage employers themselves" she adds "But they also need to work with local employers and unions to use the living wage to tackle in-work poverty throughout the area and we hope they will respond positively to the letters we have sent this week offering to do just that."
While Salford Council might pride itself on being a Living Wage Employer, more and more it is outsourcing work and getting involved in joint ventures with companies who might not be paying the Living Wage.
• The TUC analysis does not include men working part-time, as figures are not available for most local authority areas. This is because there are too few men working part-time to have statistically significant figures by local area.