Robert Brown calls for living wage for low paid workers

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 24th Sep 2009

Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown has called for an end to the "low wage culture" - and for the widening gap between those on low and high incomes to be reduced, by encouraging leading employers to commit to paying the £7 per hour living wage for the poorest.

Mr. Brown was taking part in a Parliamentary debate on the Scottish Living Wage campaign, run by campaign groups led by the Poverty Alliance.

The Living Wage is a voluntary scheme for employers created to help lift workers out of poverty.

This year, the Living Wage is set at £7 an hour as the minimum amount needed to provide an adequate standard of living for a worker and their family.

Glasgow City Council is the most recent high profile employer to join the scheme which has also been supported by London and by a number of employers in the private sector.

The Living Wage campaign found that more than half of employees in the hotel, retail and restaurant sectors are paid less than £7 an hour, with two thirds of this group being women.

Robert Brown said:

"The living wage is an idea whose time has come. It is notorious that, while average incomes and wealth have grown in recent years, the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom has been huge and is worsening.

"A huge number of people bump along the bottom and are more prone to periodic unemployment, dependent on a complex benefits system, and exist in a state of poverty.

"A report published last week identified that the victims of the current financial crisis and recession are not the high-fliers whose greed and bonus culture contributed so much to the bubble bursting - but the people who work in construction, manufacturing or support services.

"Broadly speaking, the lower down the line you are, the more likely you are to be affected by the adverse fallout of the recession and the financial problems. If ever there was a demonstration that the wage costs of the low paid did not drive the recession, the financial crisis was it.

"Large global companies ought to have responsibilities that go beyond consideration of the bottom line. There is evidence that paying a decent wage increases the productivity of employees and reduces staff turnover and absenteeism. In short, a happier workforce is likely to be better for everybody.

"If more leading firms paid a living wage, they would act as market leaders and set a benchmark that others would be encouraged and compelled to follow.

"People who do not have an income to sustain themselves and their families do not have liberty: they do not have the opportunity to take their fullest part in the society in which they live.

"Above all, implementation of the Living Wage would achieve all the obvious effects on the standard of living of many people in our society, people who are sadly often left behind by current trends."

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