The Trades Union Commission (TUC) report also showed that public sector workers are more than twice as likely as private sector workers to be contributing to a workplace pension scheme, while those earning over £300 a week are twice as likely to be paying into a pension as those earning less than that a week. This shows the importance of good quality schemes in securing high staff opt-in rates, claims the TUC.
Low-paid workers who are saving into a workplace pension are also likely to have lower combined employer and employee contribution rates than better-off staff.
Nearly half (48%) of those earning less than £200 a week have total contribution rates of less than eight per cent, compared to less than a quarter (23%) of those earning more than £500 a week.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'It is shocking that fewer than one in four people earning less than £300 a week are saving into a workplace pension scheme.
"Even those low-paid workers who are saving are more likely to have low employer and employee contribution rates that make it far harder to build an adequate pension pot when they retire.
Barber added: "Auto-enrolment will help reverse some of these worrying trends by getting more people to save. But we shouldn't be under any illusion that it alone can deliver the level of income that most people expect when they retire."
