For decades, the professional clothing, workwear and PPE sectors have depended on highly skilled people whose expertise has been built over years, and in many cases decades. Pattern cutters, garment technologists, machinists, quality controllers, and production specialists possess knowledge that cannot be quickly replaced. These individuals are the foundation of quality, consistency, and innovation within domestic manufacturing within North America and Europe.
Yet manufacturers participating in the PCIAW® UK Manufacturing Round Table have identified an emerging challenge that receives relatively little attention. While increases to the National Living Wage are designed to improve living standards, they are also creating wage compression, reducing the financial difference between entry-level positions and highly skilled technical roles.
The concern is not that minimum wages are increasing. Fair pay is essential. The concern is that manufacturers are increasingly unable to reward experience and specialist expertise because rising employment costs are not matched by increases in contract values or profit margins.
Experience Must Continue to Be Valued
Professional clothing manufacturing is a specialist industry where precision matters. Whether producing high-visibility garments, flame-resistant clothing, military uniforms or healthcare apparel, every stage of production requires technical understanding and years of practical experience.
A skilled machinist is not simply operating a sewing machine. They are interpreting complex patterns, working with specialist fabrics, maintaining strict quality standards and identifying production issues before they become costly mistakes. These skills are developed through experience rather than short-term training programmes.
Historically, these higher skill levels have been recognised through higher wages. However, manufacturers now report that maintaining meaningful pay differentials is becoming increasingly difficult.
When Wage Growth Outpaces Business Growth
Roundtable participants explained that the issue is not the minimum wage itself but the pace at which employment costs are increasing compared with business revenues. As statutory wages rise, employers naturally increase pay for those at the bottom of the pay scale. However, maintaining similar percentage increases for experienced workers across an entire workforce is often financially impossible.
The result is a shrinking gap between newly recruited employees and individuals with many years of technical expertise.
Manufacturers warned that this creates understandable frustration among skilled employees, who see their additional responsibilities, productivity and knowledge being rewarded less than in previous years.
Thin Margins Leave Little Room for Higher Salaries
The challenge becomes even greater when viewed alongside the commercial realities facing UK manufacturers.
Participants highlighted that manufacturing costs in Britain remain significantly higher than many overseas competitors. One participant explained that a technical garment costing approximately £95 to manufacture in the UK could be produced for around £63 in Tunisia and £45 in China. Another reported achieving margins of only around 15% on UK-manufactured products compared with approximately 63% through offshore production.
Those figures demonstrate why businesses struggle to increase wages across every level of the workforce. With profit margins already under pressure, manufacturers have limited flexibility to absorb rising labour costs while remaining competitive in procurement exercises where contracts are frequently awarded primarily on price.
The Risk of Losing Skilled Workers
One of the greatest concerns raised during the Round Table was the long-term retention of experienced staff.
When highly skilled employees see limited financial recognition for their expertise, they may begin looking beyond manufacturing for opportunities that offer better progression and remuneration. Losing these individuals represents far more than the loss of employees.
It means losing decades of accumulated technical knowledge, mentoring capability and production experience.
These are skills that cannot simply be replaced by recruiting new staff. Training a competent technical machinist or garment specialist takes years, and the knowledge held by experienced workers is often passed informally through day-to-day collaboration rather than written manuals.
Once these individuals leave the sector, rebuilding those capabilities becomes increasingly difficult.
A Challenge for Future Recruitment
The shrinking wage differential also affects the industry’s ability to attract younger workers.
Manufacturing competes with many other industries for talented individuals. Young people considering career options naturally compare earning potential, career progression, and long-term opportunities.
If highly skilled technical positions offer only marginally higher salaries than entry-level roles, fewer people may choose to invest the time required to develop specialist manufacturing expertise.
This creates a cycle that becomes increasingly difficult to break. As experienced employees retire and fewer young workers enter the profession, the industry’s skills gap continues to widen.
Procurement Has a Critical Role to Play
Roundtable participants repeatedly returned to one underlying issue: procurement practices.
Manufacturers argued that if public and private sector buyers continue to prioritise the lowest purchase price above all else, UK businesses will struggle to generate the revenues required to invest in their workforce.
Supporting domestic manufacturing is not simply about awarding contracts. It is about creating commercial conditions that allow businesses to offer competitive salaries, invest in apprenticeships and retain highly skilled employees.
Participants suggested that increased domestic procurement, particularly within public sector contracts, would provide manufacturers with greater confidence to invest in people while strengthening supply chain resilience domestically.
Productivity and Investment Must Work Alongside Wage Growth
Manufacturers also recognised that higher wages must ultimately be supported by greater productivity.
Investment in modern machinery, digital technologies and more efficient production systems enables businesses to increase output while supporting improved salaries. However, many SMEs lack the financial capacity to make these investments without external support.
The Round Table highlighted greater access to grants, capital investment incentives and tax relief as practical measures that would allow manufacturers to modernise operations, improve competitiveness and create stronger foundations for long-term wage growth.
Protecting Skills Means Protecting UK Manufacturing
The discussion surrounding rising minimum wages should never become a debate about whether workers deserve higher pay. The real challenge lies in ensuring that experienced workers continue to receive meaningful recognition for the specialist skills they bring to the industry.
Without that recognition, manufacturers risk losing the very expertise that underpins product quality, innovation and operational resilience.
The shrinking wage gap is therefore not simply a payroll issue. It is a strategic challenge that affects recruitment, retention, productivity and the future competitiveness of domestic manufacturing.
