Call to give extra cash to underpaid key workers to boost their pay packets in Sheffield

A third of Sheffield's workforce are key workers, those seen as essential to the coronavirus response, including health and social care staff, delivery drivers, supermarket employees and many others.

Sheffield was home to 91,000 key workers in 2019 with an average full-time salary of £28,423.

However, at the other end of the scale, the lowest 10 per cent of earners take home an average of £18,799, while the lowest paid key workers, nursery nurses, earn an average of just £18,157.

Frances O’Grady, Trades Union Congress general secretary, said these people now deserve a pay rise as a thank you for keeping Britain going through the pandemic.

She said: “Frontline workers are putting their own health on the line to look after the rest of us.

“They are caring for the sick and vulnerable, getting us to work, keeping our shelves stocked and our vital services running.

“Now it’s time for ministers to give key workers a proper thank you.

“And that means getting money into their pockets now.”

The GMB union is calling for a Coronavirus Crisis Allowance to be paid to all front-line workers, which would provide an additional payment to boost their wages.

Rehana Azam, GMB national secretary, said: “This crisis has shown everyone just how crucial so many workers are fighting this pandemic.

“Yet far too many remain scandalously low paid despite being crucial to our health, safety and well-being.

“Millions of key workers are risking their health for the public good and they shouldn’t be going home to their families with poverty pay.”

A government spokesman said millions of employees, including key workers, will have benefited from a rise in the minimum wage at the start of April.

He said: “We remain committed to helping hard-working individuals earn more while levelling up this country.”