CORONA CRISIS

Carers ‘deserve better’ than pay on poverty level

CARERS leading the frontline battle against coronavirus should be properly rewarded, a fair pay campaigner says.

Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation, is calling for hundreds of thousands of workers to be taken off the minimum hourly rate and placed on the higher voluntary level.

She told how the care industry is “undervalued and underfunded” and has around one million workers, many of whom are on “incredibly low pay”.

Ms Chapman added: “Now there is a real opportunity to create lasting change. It’s time to ensure all care work is rewarded with at least a Real Living

Wage.” Many carers earn the Government’s National Living Wage – the legal minimum for workers aged 25 and over – of £8.72 an hour.

Workers aged 21 to 24 on the minimum wage get £8.20, while those aged 18 to 20 are paid just £6.45. The Real Living Wage – calculated by experts as the minimum required for a decent standard of living – is £9.30 an hour for all ages, rising to £10.75 in London.

A poll for union GMB showed 79 per cent of care staff fear a manpower shortage because workers are unwilling to risk themselves for “poverty” pay levels.

More than 70 per cent of the 2,200 care workers quizzed believe colleagues will die after being infected at work.

GMB national officer Rachel Harrison said: “You have to ask yourself if you’d risk your life and the lives of your family for less than £9 an hour.”