Make work pay enough to live on
Posted by Roger Godsiff, MP for Birmingham, Hall Green, at 18:04, Mon 23 June 2014:
Roger is supporting a campaign by the union GMB to raise the national minimum wage for its members to £10 per hour. He commented: “In one of the world’s richest countries, it is shameful that people can work full time and yet still live in poverty or have to rely on benefits to provide for their families. With more people in poverty now in work than out of it, it is clear that the current minimum wage is too low to provide a decent standard of living.”
Birmingham is one of the ten areas in the country with the lowest average income, at just £12,793 per person each year.
Roger tabled a Written Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to ask the Government to carry out a cost-benefit assessment of the impact of lifting the minimum wage to £10 per hour. He commented: “I doubt that the Government will bother to assess this. However, allowing employers to pay poverty wages benefits shareholders and CEOs at the expense of ordinary working people and, of course, the taxpayer. Why should wealthy corporations continue to have their wage bill subsidised by the Government while the people who made them rich live in poverty?”
Recent research by the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom project found that over the last 30 years the number of households below the minimum standard of living has more than doubled, from 14 per cent to 33 percent, even though the economy doubled in size over the same time period. The study also found that one in every six adults in paid work is poor, while around 1.5 million children live in households which cannot afford to heat their home.
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Posted by Colin, 06:47, Tue 24 June 2014: (Is this post abusive?) #
The goal is admirable, but the danger of such a sudden & steep rise is that we lose competitiveness against other nations. Labour's 3 million immigrants, over ten years will have helped to depress wages by creating an over-supply of workers. Also, it is wrong to talk about the UK as one of the 'word's richest countries'. The truth is the reverse of this. The UK is bankrupt, with a growing, unsustainable & un-repayable debt burden.
Posted by Mohammed Hemraj, 10:13, Tue 24 June 2014: (Is this post abusive?) #
How can a worker survive without a minimum wage and also expect him/her to contribute to the production of goods and services? It defies logic.
Posted by Colin, 07:57, Wed 25 June 2014: (Is this post abusive?) #
The debate on minimum wages is settled, by & large. The question is whether an immediate rise to £10 is realistic? Certainly, taxpayers should not be subsidising employers, via tax credits to make up workers' incomes. Most employment in the UK is provided by small businesses, so Mr. Godsiff's talk of 'wealthy corporations' is rather misleading.