Low-wage workers are most likely to lack access to sick pay and most likely to die from Covid-19, while older people and those from ethnic minorities are also considered at risk of missing out on sick pay, new research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) reveals.

The think tank’s probe indicates that there is a “class disparity” in accessing pay when someone is unable to work due to illness. Workers in outdoor trades, such as farming and construction, are five times more likely to miss out than their bosses, while those in, for example, manufacturing, transportation and catering are around twice as likely to be worse off, according to the report’s findings.

IPPR’s report co-author Dr Parth Patel (left) said: “Sick pay rates in the UK are among the lowest in the developed world, but until now it has been very poorly understood which workers actually lack access to any sick pay whatsoever.

“The class, race and age disparities in sick pay access revealed by this new analysis risk entrenching the inequalities exposed by the pandemic and constraining the UK’s ability to ‘live with Covid’.”

UNISON General Secretary Christina McAnea commented: “Those who are ill or isolating should be given their proper pay rate as soon as they’re ill,” while Paddy Lillis, General Secretary of retail union Usdaw, has called for sick pay to be “paid from day one at an individual’s normal rate of pay” for all workers.

IPPR said the pandemic has exposed the clear link between work and health, with its new analysis of official data revealing that people in jobs traditionally considered working class were twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than those in jobs considered middle class. IPPR said lower paid occupations have also experienced the highest Covid-19 mortality rates.