Tories paying lip service to real living wage for millions
take their cues from this organisation.
Nicola Sturgeon announced last week that more than 80 per cent of Scotland’s workforce are paid at least the living wage, making Scotland the best performing of all UK countries.
While we can be proud of this, we mustn’t be complacent. So much more needs to be done.
A real stumbling block has been the Tories at Westminster.
Their brazen rebranding of the national minimum wage as a national living wage is beyond misleading as, despite the name, it is not enough to actually live on.
Indeed, even in the Chancellor’s Budget just a couple of weeks ago, the THE news that Michelin are to close their factory in Dundee is a devastating blow to the city and employees.
Dundee MPs Stewart Hosie and Chris Law called on the Chancellor to work constructively with the Scottish Government to ensure they mitigate the impact of these potential job losses on the community.
The MPs will be working with trade unions, the Scottish Government and Dundee City Council to explore options and identify how they can best support the workers at Michelin and secure the future of the site. increase to the national living wage from next year is still 54p per hour short of the real living wage.
The UK Government’s “living wage” also discriminates based on age. Young people can be paid almost £4 less than over-25s for doing exactly the same job.
Under current UK legislation, workers over the age of 25 are entitled to at least £7.83 an hour. However, those aged 21 to 24 are entitled to just £7.38 an hour, those aged 18 to 20 £5.90 an hour, under-18s £4.20 an hour and apprentices just £3.70 an hour.
My colleague David Linden MP has been calling on the UK Government to ensure work pays regardless of age.
How can it be right that you can earn less for doing exactly the same job as your co-workers, just because you are younger?
Millions of families across the UK have already suffered from falling wages and squeezed incomes under the past decade of Tory austerity.
If the UK Government will not introduce a real living wage, powers should be devolved so the Scottish Government can introduce a real living wage for all workers in Scotland.
In the meantime, the SNP will continue to call on the Tories to wake up to the discrimination that they seem so keen to perpetuate and ensure workers across the whole of the UK are guaranteed a wage that they can live on.