“Sixteen years ago, I had hair on my head and money in my pocket,” Ash Dhobi of the national Black members’ committee told the local government committee.
“Today – well you can see my head and you guess the rest,” he added.
He went on to tell delegates that research showed that two-fifths of Black workers live in low-income households – more than the national average.
And pay matters, he said, for a number of reasons – not least because “communities depend on people being about to spend money where they live and supporting the local economy.”
Kim Johnson from Liverpool stressed that the disproportionate impact of the pay freeze and cuts on Black people was not “just anecdote, but is supported by proper research”.
Conference called for continued campaigning, guidance, advice and research on the issue.
