Proportion of London residents' jobs paid below London Living Wage by employment type (2005-2025)
Last updated: January 2026
Next update: November 2026
What does this indicator show?
This indicator looks at jobs held by London residents that are low-paid. These jobs may be located within London or outside the capital. For a similar analysis focused on jobs located in London only, please see 'Low-paid jobs in London'.
Jobs are considered low-paid if they are below the London Living Wage, which was introduced in 2005. It is a voluntary wage rate based on the amount of money that people need to live.
The rate in London in April 2025 when the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings we use for this analysis was conducted was £13.85.
One in six working Londoners are low paid
16.1% of working Londoners are low paid (2025) - slightly lower than in 2024, when 17.3% of Londoners were low paid. This is much lower than the peak in 2015, when 22.1% of Londoners were low-paid.
Low-paid work is far more prevalent in part-time employment. In 2025, 38.6% of Londoners in part-time work were in low-paid jobs compared to just 9.9% of Londoners in full-time work.
Low pay is more prevalent among those with fewer qualifications
Proportion of London residents' jobs paid below London Living Wage by qualification level (2021)
Looking at Londoners’ low-pay from the perspective of their qualification level, the differences are even larger.
Although low pay is an issue faced by a sizeable proportion of Londoners of all qualification levels, those with higher qualification levels are less likely to be low paid.
More than 6 in 10 working Londoners without qualifications were low-paid in 2021, compared to just above 1 in 10 for those educated to degree level. This is inline with analysis of low paid jobs in London that finds the highest proportion of low-paid jobs to be among elementary occupations.
Low pay & employment status
Proportion of London residents' jobs paid below London Living Wage by permanent/non-permanent employment status (2021)
Londoners in non-permanent employment are considerably more likely to be low paid than those in permanent employment.
The proportion of Londoners in non-permanent employment who were low paid in 2021 is much higher than the London average (17.5%), and 16 percentage points higher than those in permanent employment.
Want to know more?
If you want to explore this data in more depth, check the 'data source and notes' button on the above charts. This will tell you where the data comes from, where you may be able to dig deeper.
Or find out more about the London Living Wage using the link below.