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Low Pay Commission
8th Floor
Oxford House
76 Oxford Street
London
W1D 1BS
General enquiries:
020 7467 7207
Press enquiries:
020 7467 7279
E-mail:
lpc@lowpay.gov.uk
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THE NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE AND TRAINING
Research report commissioned by the Low Pay Commission
>>Back to main index
Appendix 1: Methodological Issues in Doing Research in Low Pay Sectors
In the introduction the difficulties of conducting research on low pay sectors were identified. A number of strategies were used to gain access to the case study organisations in the two localities. The first of these involved collecting information about the sector, local economy, labour market and skills from the Job Centre, local authority, local colleges and other agencies and identifying potential case study organisations through these contacts. In both towns, we were able to speak to employers in social care through meetings set up with private and voluntary sector organisations by staff in the Social Services Departments. Given the range of pressures on them to comply with care standards and concerns about payment levels, they were keen to speak to researchers doing research for the government.
Hotel managers and owners were encouraged to participate by a number of strategies. With one hotel a room was booked and then the researcher asked the manager if he would be interviewed. For two hotels in Resort Town, discussion at the Job Centre had revealed that the owners were public spirited local people with long family histories in the area and this route of recommendation was used. Owners of retail shops were the most difficult category to access. Where possible, recommendation was also used, but on two occasions interviews were arranged following purchases made by the researchers.
Although the intention was to conduct interviews in one medium-sized (21-50 employees) and two small (under 20 employees) in each sector in each locality, it was not possible to know in advance how many staff were employed. Size also affected the extent to which the employer was able to find time to be interviewed. A number of smaller guest houses were contacted, but generally the smaller the hotel, the less willing the owner was to be interviewed. This was also the case with smaller shops where there is very little slack in the system to give the owner time for an interview. Again rejections were experienced and the interviews which were conducted in smaller shops were made possible by virtue of being in the right place at the right time.
Although the questionnaire was not long, most interviewees got restless after twenty minutes as they were trying to run a business. This meant that sometimes a selection of the questions had to be made. In some cases, follow-up telephone calls were made for further clarification or the material was covered through the employee interviews.
Questions about pay, staff ratios and turnover can be sensitive issues at the best of times. Owner/managers may not want to discuss these issues with a researcher they do not know. In this research there was also a presentational problem insofar as individuals could feel that they had been contacted because they paid low wages to their employees. The questions on staffing were at the beginning of the interview schedule, but would have been better towards the end of an interview when some rapport had been achieved.
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