“When do you see your friends or go on dates?” I asked 26-year-old Asma (not her real name). “I don’t!” she replied over the phone. Asma, who has a degree in international relations, works nights in a supermarket in Northumberland, where she grew up. Asma is not from a wealthy family. When she isn’t stacking shelves, she does poorly paid internships remotely to try to break into her chosen field and one day move to London.

Asma is one of a growing number of young women I have spoken to from across Britain who work multiple low-paid jobs for £10,000 a year or less. Not all are graduates like her: some are young mothers, and some have caring responsibilities. But they all have one thing in common: they’re overworked.

And then there’s the 35-year-old mother of two I met in Middlesbrough. Throughout her twenties, she was a caseworker but picked up retail work to top up her income. She has always worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, bar a spell of unemployment due to injury, suggesting that today’s twentysomethings are not just going through a phase with their overworking.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Women’s Budget Group (WBG) are warning that these young women will not reap the financial rewards........

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