Research commissioned by a trade union has indicated 28,000 local government workers are paid below the revised hourly rate for the National Minimum Wage.

Unison's first annual Town Hall Poor List, a riposte to the Taxpayers' Alliance's annual Town Hall Rich List, shows the lowest paid town hall staff - typically cleaners, caterers or carers -  earn 1p less than the new minimum pay rate of £6.31 an hour.

In addition, a Unison survey of 14,800 town hall workers has revealed more than a quarter (26%) saw cuts to their wages on top of the three year pay freeze, which the union claims has led to average 16% reductions to pay packets.

Heather Wakefield, Unison head of local government said: ‘The low wage epidemic in local government is a disgrace.'

‘We know it's not easy but councils do have other choices; stop stuffing money into the pockets of expensive consultants, piling cash into reserves or wasting lots of public money on privatisation.

‘This is our rainy day – for local government workers it's pouring,' Ms Wakefield added.

Publication of the low wage findings comes the day after local government employers offered a 1% pay increase to break the three-year town hall pay freeze.

Key local government unions, including Unison, the GMB and Unite, have demanded a substantial wage increase for council workers, and will meet on 7 May to plan their response to the offer.

However, council employers have expressed themselves ‘extremely disappointed' with the unions' refusal to enter into talks on reforming terms and conditions for the first time since 1997.

The Local Government Association's head of workforce, Sarah Messenger yesterday wrote to trade union bosses saying town hall chiefs would now ‘begin concentrating their efforts on assisting councils in whatever way possible to achieve reforms locally'.