This week, UNISON is submitting our evidence to the Low Pay Commission, where we are arguing for a substantial increase to the national minimum wage.
UNISON fought long and hard for its introduction – in the teeth of massive opposition – and when it was finally brought in, in 1999, it was an achievement that we could rightly feel proud of.
But even then it was set low – the commission was under pressure from the doom-and-gloom merchants who predicted that shops and businesses would close and workers would lose their jobs.
Today, times are even tougher – but business interests still line up to suppress any increases. At £6.31 an hour, the minimum wage is failing to keep up with the basic cost of living.
That is why UNISON says the time is right to move towards the more realistic living wage: currently £8.55 in London.
This is the right thing to do, and will help to boost our economy. In fact, setting the minimum wage higher is a win-win scenario.
Not only would it stimulate the economy through increased spending, it would save taxpayers’ money by cutting benefits and help to close the gender pay gap, which remains stubbornly high.
Why should taxpayers be subsidising Scrooge employers who pay poverty wages and rely on the state to make up the difference?
At its current level, the national minimum wage is failing our members and workers across the UK.
British workers have suffered over a number of years from a significant gap between rising prices and depressed wages.
This gap has contributed to the crisis in living standards that so many people are now experiencing.
The wage freeze and squeeze has effectively meant a pay cut for the vast majority.
I know from talking to members – and from the huge increase in the number of requests for help to our welfare charity There for you – that they and their families are experiencing stress and as a result of poverty wages:
- parents who do not get to spend time with their children because they are doing two jobs;
- workers who worry every day about how they are going to put food on the table and keep warm in winter;
- people falling into the hands of unscrupulous payday lenders and struggling to pay off loans that have exorbitant interest rates.
We won the battle for a national minimum wage and we will keep up the pressure for a new living wage.
As a strong union, we can use our voice to make our views heard across the political divide and in thousands of workplaces up and down the country.
Join us and help to create a fairer society.
Find out more about the national minimum wage (UNISON Knowledge: member-only content)