“Mainly round here now, it’s all minimum wage,” says Michael. He worked as a miner in the 1980s – then, after the pits closed, he was a supermarket floor manager, before spending 10 years caring full-time for his wife, who had a rare neurological condition. After she died four years ago, he took the job at the warehouse. “The money they pay you, you can’t afford to run a car,” he says.
