Exploitation and low pay causing poverty among care workers, TUC finds

TUC says urgent investment needed in Cinderella sectors' to head off demographic timebomb

• Invisible, endless, relentless': the reality of care work in England

Chronic under-investment, exploitation and low pay is leading to widespread poverty among workers in the care sector, according to damning research from the Trades Union Congress.

As it publishes its first workforce blueprint for the care economy, the TUC argues that the Cinderella sectors" of social care and childcare need urgent investment to head off a demographic timebomb.

More than three in five (62%) childcare workers and social care workers earn less than the real living wage.

Social care workers earn only about 65% of the median salary for all employees (21,500 a year compared with 33,000).

Childcare workers earn only 56% of the median salary for all employees (18,400).