LIVING WAGE RESEARCH
About the UN
- International organisation founded in 1945
- Made up of 193 Member States
- Provides a forum for its members to express their views in the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council.
- Tackles issues such as peace and security, climate change, sustainable development, human rights, disarmament, terrorism, humanitarian and health emergencies, gender equality etc.
Links between the Living Wage and the UN
UN Charter:
‘Everyone has the
right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself
and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and
necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
The minimum wage
undermines this as it doesn’t cover the costs of adequate food, housing,
clothing and medical care.
Facts
- The living wage is defined as: “a wage that achieves an adequate level of warmth and shelter, a healthy palatable diet, social integration and avoidance of chronic stress for earners and their dependents”
- Currently, the living wage is voluntary – employers choose whether to pay it. The current UK Living Wage is £7.85 an hour, with the London Living Wage being £9.15 an hour.
- In July 2015 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the UK Government will introduce a compulsory minimum wage premium for all staff over 25 years of age, and referred to it as the ‘national living wage’.
- Some groups are particularly low paid: around 40% of employees of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin in London were low paid, more than twice the rate for White British employees. Half of working 16 to 24 year olds were paid below the London LW compared with 16% to 18% for all other age groups.
- Some 27% of low-paid jobs are in the retail sector and 22% of all low paid jobs are in hotels and restaurants. Taken together this accounts for almost half of all low paid jobs in London (49%).
- Living Wage Week – takes place every year in the first week of November – to raise awareness
- 23% of the population earn less than the living wage (2014).
- Over 500,000 people have visited a food bank in the last year (2013).
- Almost a quarter of jobs outside London paid less than the living wage in 2014.
- The Office for National Statistics says there were 6m jobs paying less than the living wage across the UK in 2014.
- Minimum wage – only £3.87 for under 18s
- Among jobs taken by 18- to 24-year-olds, 48% in London and 58% outside were paid less than the living wage.
Living Wage
- Voluntary – promoted by the Living Wage Foundation. In 2015, the number of accredited employers who follow the Living Wage was 1,500. These includes Google, ITV, Barclays and KPMG.
- The Living Wage is calculated according to the basic cost of living in the UK
- The London Living Wage rate is set by the Greater London Authority.
- The Living Wage rate outside of London is set by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University.
- The national living wage will come into effect in April 2016. The rate will be set at £7.20, which is below the rates that the Living Wage Foundation supports. By 2020 the Government aims to have the national living wage as £9.
- Unlike the living wage, it is compulsory. It’s also nationwide – with the wages increasing in London (£9.15).
- It’s only for people over the age 24 (those younger will still have the National Minimum Wage)
Positives
- 80% of employers believe that the Living Wage improved the quality of the work of their staff. Moreover, absenteeism fell by 25%.
- The Living Wage would take only 1.3% of the national wage bill, and yet still take six million people out of the poverty.
- Research on 400 workers;
·
54% of workers felt more positive about their
workplace
·
52% were most positive about their employer
·
38% felt they had greater spending power
·
32% felt it improved their family life
·
There was an improvement in psychological
well being
- The government could make annual savings of £2.2 billion if everyone was paid a living wage and 4 million people would benefit.
- It will help the ‘invisible army’ (people who clean, cater, provide security, work in hotels, social care and retail). They have low wages. [Sonja said that she doesn’t get noticed – all that the staff know is that the toilets are clean].
- 32% of workers in Living Wage workplaces felt it had benefitted their family life – spend more time with children/take more holidays.
Negatives
- The Living Wage will add £4.5billion to the wage bill of UK firms by 2020. However – this will still be manageable for most sectors – the cost will be less than 1% of the wage bill in most sectors.
- Some firms may have to cut down on employment or raise prices to cope with the Living Wage. OBR has estimated that 60,000 jobs may be lost – firms will managed increased costs by cutting jobs and then increasing prices and then as a last resort reducing profits.
- Some concerned that companies will move to other countries. However, this was a concern when the Minimum Wage was first introduced in 1999 (fears of 1mn jobs at risk) and that didn’t happen.
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