LAW, LEGAL ADVICE, CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND PRISONS
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Somalia Poland
7.90 7.30
Source: LFS and Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) calculations. Note: Data refers to respondents’ main jobs only, and is only collected from respondents who are employed as opposed to self-employed.
As highlighted by IPPR (2007), it may be tempting to conclude that the groups with lower average pay ‘undercut’ UK-born and indeed other immigrant workers (see Chapter 6). However, this conclusion relies on the assumption that all immigrants perform similar jobs, while in fact they tend to be concentrated at either end of the skills spectrum. The job for which a UK-born worker is earning an average of £11.10 an hour is unlikely to be similar to the job for which a Polish-born worker earns an average of £7.30. Similarly, Poles and Americans, who occupy opposite ends of the hourly pay scale, are unlikely to be ‘competing’ for jobs (IPPR, 2007, p 21). It is also important to remember that the LFS statistics refer only to respondents who are employed rather than self-employed: the latter are likely to earn higher average wages than employees. Therefore, groups such as the Turkish and Pakistani, which have high proportions of self-employment, would very possibly display higher average pay rates if data on self-employed income were available. An in-depth analysis of Annual Population Survey statistics on workers in London (LSE, 2007) showed that the earnings of migrants from ‘poor countries’ are substantially lower than those of the average Londoner, in spite of qualification levels which are often above the average: ‘This is especially clear in the first three years, when they appear to receive about 40 per cent below the London average. … For the newly arrived A8 migrants, the difference appears even greater, with average earning of just £6.00 per hour recorded’ (LSE, 2007, p 51). 12.2 Benefits LFS calculations also show that the majority of foreign-born groups have lower Income Support take-up rates than the UK-born. Income Support is a means-tested benefit that can be claimed by working-age people who are not working full-time and are on low incomes, or who are lone parents, sick or disabled, or caring for another person. Table 12.2 shows that, out of all the groups, those born in the USA, Philippines, Poland, France and Australia are the least likely to be claiming Income Support, while Somalis are the most likely to be claiming it, due to the high incidence of poverty among them.
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