MORE than 11,000 of the city’s key workers, considered vital to the UK’s response to the coronavirus crisis, are earning below the ‘real’ living wage, new data suggests.

Around one in five workers in Worcester including cleaners, shelf stackers, hospital porters, waste collectors, retail workers, van drivers, security guards and factory workers are paid less than the Living Wage Foundation’s ‘real’ living wage rate of £9.30 an hour, according to government and trade union figures.

The real living wage is a voluntary scheme devised by the Living Wage Foundation and is based on food costs and household bills. The Living Wage Foundation rate is currently £9.30 an hour for those working outside London.

The National Living Wage, which is different to the voluntary ‘real’ living wage and is set by the government, was increased to £8.72 an hour from April 1.

The figures come from data provided by the Office for National Statistics and survey results from trade union GMB, which represents more than 62,000 workers including key workers.

Worcester City Council has been paying the living wage to its staff since 2014 but has been working on becoming an accredited employer, which would involve ensuring third-party and contracted workers are paid the living wage, following a call last year.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: "It is right we ensure the lowest paid are fairly rewarded for their contribution to the economy, particularly those working in essential services during the biggest threat this country has faced in decades.

"This year's increase to the National Living Wage means we will be putting an extra £930 a year into the pockets of 2.4 million of the UK's lowest paid workers."

Nye Cominetti, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation thinktank said: “Britain’s low-paid workers have been at the heart of the current economic crisis, for good and bad reasons.

“Low-paying sectors like hospitality, travel and non-food retail have been most affected by the government’s lockdown, with firms closing and job losses mounting.

“More positively, workers in low-paying sectors – from supermarket staff to care workers and hospital porters – are playing an essential role in steering the country through the crisis.

“Many of these workers will have benefitted from big increases in the National Living Wage, and some will have additionally benefited from wider adoption of the real living wage.

“For public sector workers in particular, some local authorities are already living wage accredited. Once we emerge from the crisis, other councils and public sector bodies should sign up too to show how much their lowest-paid frontline workers are valued."