…The MAC has completed a major review of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). The most substantive change …is that this review has been conducted on the basis of our recommendation that no employer should be able to pay below the “going rate” regardless of whether there is shortage…The going rate helps to protect resident workers from undercutting and reduces the exploitation of migrants…As a result of removing this discount, most occupations currently on the SOL are ineligible going forward..

There are, however, risks to allowing these low-wage occupations more liberal access. First, and in our view most important, low-wage employment is where the most serious exploitation of workers occurs. We know that the risk of exploitation is particularly significant for migrants. Migrant workers on the SW route are reliant on being employed by a sponsoring firm to remain in the UK and that makes them vulnerable to unscrupulous employers who may use that vulnerability to make them work in conditions that no decent society should accept. Using the SOL to make it easier to recruit low-wage workers increases the risk of this exploitation. We must not shy away from this – it is an inevitable consequence of such a decision…