The 10 worst areas of Britain for earning the living wage

West Somerset, Harrow and Torride in north Devon have the highest number of non-living wage jobs

Workers in West Somerset are most likely not to be paid the living wage, according to government figures

One in five workers in the UK are paid less than the living wage, new figures released on Monday revealed, but in some places this proportion more than doubles.

Four out of ten people working in West Somerset, Harrow in north west London and Torridge in North Devon are paid below the living wage - a voluntary hourly rate of £7.85 outside London and £9.15 in the capital that is calculated to cover the basic cost of living.

The proportion of jobs paid less than the living wage outside London has risen from 21 per cent to 23 per cent since 2012, while the proportion in London has risen from 13 per cent in 2008 to 19 per cent last year.

But in the City of London borough, the proportion of jobs paying less than £9.15 an hour is just 5.2 per cent - the lowest area in the country, followed by Runnymede, Mole Valley and South Cambridgeshire councils.

In his summer budget George Osborne announced that from April next year employers will be forced to pay a mandatory living wage of £7.20 an hour, rising to £9 an hour by 2020.

However the new minimum wage will not apply to under 25-year-olds. At last week's Conservative party conference Cabinet minister Matt Hancock defended the decision, saying workers under the age of 25 were "not as productive" as older workers.

The new living wage is being introduced in order to compensate for the £4.5bn a year cut in tax credits, forcing firms to pay higher wages rather than taxpayers being forced to subsidise low pay. However the Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that three million working households will be more than £1,300 worse off a year as a result of the overall changes.

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