Labour market changes urged as MLAs told ‘work not working’ amid low pay problem

“Work is not working”, MLAs have been warned, in light of findings that show the majority of people in Northern Ireland in poverty are in work.

The Communities Committee at Stormont heard that “change is needed” in the labour market and there is a “conversation” to be had with employers in relation to the real living wage.

Anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) published a report last year that found some 330,000 (17%) of people in Northern Ireland live in poverty, including one in four children.

It also revealed that 60% of working-age adults living in poverty are in work and 64% of children in poverty in Northern Ireland are living in a household where someone works.

Ursula O’Hare, head of Northern Ireland at the JRF, told the committee on Thursday that “in work poverty” has risen, showing that “work is not always a reliable route out of poverty”.

“Good work matters for many reasons, and full-time work does remain a protective factor but the key message in the report is that work isn’t always working, and it’s one of the biggest changes over the last 20 years, and it is a trend across the UK as a whole,” she said.

She added: “Almost half of all workers have experienced low pay in the last five years so there’s a low pay problem.

“The disability gap continues to be stubbornly persistent, full-time carers are experiencing poverty, and we all know the issues for parents struggling to get access to work with affordable wrap-around childcare.

“So the big message in this is that change is needed in the labour market. We need to dismantle the barriers to empower people to move into and support them to move into good, available work.”

Ms O’Hare said this in combination with other factors such as the rising cost of housing, which traditionally has been a “protective factor” in Northern Ireland, was painting a “picture of weak financial resilience”.

“Forty-six per cent of people have less than £1,500 in savings, and the average family with two children who are living in poverty in Northern Ireland are trying to manage on a weekly income that’s £120 below the poverty line.”

Ms O’Hare described the Department for the Economy’s Good Jobs Employment Bill as “really important”.

Economy minister Caoimhe Archibald has claimed the Bill currently in progress will help businesses to become more productive, build workers’ skills base, and strengthen employment legislation.

“Strengthening employment rights is really important and the real living wage was something that we specifically modelled to understand what would the impact be if everybody moved up to the real living wage on child poverty, and we find that it does make a difference,” Ms O’Hare said.

“So there’s an important conversation there to have with employers.

“I know the real living wage campaign is working away at pace in Northern Ireland, so those are some of the things that really need to be considered in the labour market.”

Christine Ellison, senior analyst at the JRF, said in her consideration of the figures agriculture “really stood out”, adding “23% of the people working in that industry are in poverty”.

“Retail and the arts, the poverty rate was 18%. Also very high was hospitality, at 15%, and 22% of people in poverty work in health and social care,” she said.

“And part of the real issue is that while low pay is a widespread issue, it’s really concentrated in those particular industries.”