Fair Pay in Bolton – Why There’s Hope Despite the Data

My teeth were painfully gritted after the data presentations at the Living Wage City Region Action group meeting last week, so I went straight out for a walk in the sunshine afterwards. It can’t all be pasties and mermaids I suppose.

Things certainly feel different to when I first joined the Real Living Wage movement on behalf of Boo in 2019. By then we were a decade or so into pay stagnation, but we weren’t treading water in a cost of living crisis. As always, I was keen to see how my hometown compares to the neighbours and it wasn’t good news for my molars. Bolton has the highest proportion of low-paid jobs of any district in Greater Manchester.

almost a quarter of jobs in Bolton workplaces pay less than a living wage

Looking at the data for job location rather than residence, almost A QUARTER of jobs in Bolton workplaces pay less than a living wage – the amount calculated by the Living Wage Foundation as being enough to live on. And of course, with women shouldering an unequal share of lower paid jobs, it’s a double bummer if you happen to be working in Bolton and also a woman.

The workplace-based figures show a widening gender pay gap (up from 10.7% to 11.9% since last year, measuring structural differences not discrimination). The figures for resident data aren’t great either, with median pay significantly lower than the national average (£2.75 per hour less).

So, if you’re a woman who both lives and works in Bolton, the picture is comparatively pants. Structural inequalities, reliance on insecure work, no savings, reduced retirement security, impacts on health and wellbeing. It’s a good job Boltonian women make up for this raw deal by being clever and hilarious and beautiful.

Which sectors have the lowest pay?

Hospitality is an industry in trouble (no surprise) and came up tops for Bolton’s lowest paying sector. However, one thing surprised me was education – with 20% of education jobs in Greater Manchester paying less than living wage. As chair of the GM Women & Girls Equality Panel Education Work and Skills Group, those working in education have been on my radar for a little while now as one of the ‘groups of working women I’m most worried about.’

We’d begun the year by looking at challenges faced by women trying to push through barriers in male-dominated industries. This rightly deserves attention, but meanwhile women in education and early years care and health and social care are frustrated, burned out, demoralised and skint. This of course then impacts negatively on recruitment and retention into these cornerstone institutions, you know, the ones on which we all rely.

We might need to take these exact figures with a pinch of salt, as we know local authority data has significant error margins. However, it’s ringing true for us on the ground, wouldn’t you agree? It’s fair to say that our humour and beauty aside, Bolton’s women are facing multiple inequalities.

Meanwhile women’s unpaid labour is worth £10 billion a year to the economy in the North West alone.

What can we do?

There is hope. The numbers of employers in Bolton committed to paying the Real Living Wage is growing. More Bolton-based employees are members of the GM Good Employment Charter since Boo became the town’s join first in 2022. We have the Bolton Family Social Value Partnership, a collaboration of private, public, social enterprise and voluntary organisations working together for the greater good (chaired by Becci). There are also ambitious plans underway to overhaul the whole experience of living and working in Bolton, investing in the town centre, making use of our assets and uplifting our sense of local pride. This will hopefully attract some higher-paying employers, who we will encourage to become Living Wage, Good Employment Charter and Good Business Charter accredited, and in an action group meeting next year or the year after, the data won’t feel as bleak.