Southampton & District Greens support the new living wage.
3 November 2015
Southampton Green Party calls on local employers to pay workers a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
This week is Living Wage Week. The first week in November the Wage Foundation publish the amount calculated to be the Living Wage. This is the hourly rate that economists have deemed workers need for a decent standard of living. It represents the real living wage and not any other figure or so called living wage brandished about by politicians whose real intent might be to short change our work force. Today the Living Wage has been set to £8.25, with the London rate set at £9.40.
There are six million workers at present earning under the hourly living wage. In Southampton large retailers like Toys R Us, Tescos, John Lewis will be legally forced to pay a National Living Wage (NLW) in 2016. The NLW set by Westminster is going to be £7.20 for over 25-year-olds, one pound and five pence below the Living Wage already voluntarily being paid by companies such as the Nationwide Building Society, Lidl, Ikea, No Limits charity
and Morrisons.
Chris Bluemel Green Party spokesperson, criticised those companies paying less than the Living Wage, ‘it is shambolic that even large companies are still paying the minimum wage. Now tax credits are under threat workers need a real wage more than ever to make ends meet.'
The demand for food banks is escalating and it is not just the unemployed finding they fall short of having enough money to heat a room and feed themselves.
Chris also pointed to the Green Party’s appeal to persuade George Osborne to include the Living Wage into the Autumn statement,
“We are asking the Government to do the right thing and legislate for fair wages. The Chancellor must use the Autumn Statement to set the minimum wage at £8.25 for workers of all ages.”
