One in five low-paid men now works part-time

Men in low-paid jobs are more likely to be working in insecure jobs on part-time hours than they were in the 1990s, the Institute of Fiscal Studies says.

Two decades ago, among men aged between 20 and 55 and classified as being on low pay, one in 20 was working part-time. That has increased fourfold to one in five, says the Guardian: "Meanwhile the proportion of middle and high-wage men working part-time remains low at less than one in 20."

Anti-poverty campaigners will cite the figures "to show how men with low skills and in areas of the country with few jobs are among the worst hit by the loss of well-paid full-time employment", it adds.

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However, the study, which effectively identifies an increase in pay inequality for men, "does not reveal why increasing numbers of low-paid men are working part time", says the BBC.

One "school of thought" is that men have increasingly been forced out of "low-paid but secure" manufacturing jobs in recent years as these industries have waned, finding work instead in the "traditionally poorly paid and less secure services sector".

Six in ten part-time jobs held by men are in the retail, wholesale or hospitality sectors, jobs that in the past have been dominated by female workers.

In contrast, income inequality among women has fallen in the past two decades, while Office for National Statistics figures posted earlier this week revealed overall income inequality has also decreased.

However, this is mainly because of policies to boost pensions, which have seen incomes among retirees rise 12 per cent. Wages have dropped on average by 1.2 per cent, says the Financial Times.

Jonathan Cribb, senior research economist at the IFS, said: "To understand the drivers of inequality in the UK it is vital to understand the growing association between low hourly wages and low hours of work among men."