Who could argue with paying people a living wage? A living wage that allows workers to earn enough to provide them and their families with the basics of a decent life, sounds a simple concept.
At its heart is an ethical argument for preventing in-work poverty and ensuring workers are not exploited through low wages. This requires a wage that takes into account the area-specific cost of living, as well as the basic expenses involved in supporting a family. Poverty pay should have no place in this rich nation in the 21st century.
This week, the new living wage rate will be announced and it gives us an opportunity to highlight its importance. Its opponents use the same tired old arguments they used against women getting equal pay and against the minimum wage. All those arguments proved groundless.
The minimum wage has been a great success, lifting more than a million out of poverty without job losses. The living wage campaign builds on that success in an attempt to stamp out in-work poverty.
We are working hard in UNISON to get employers to sign up to pay the living wage, but we still have a long way to go. For example, there are still 502,000 local government workers who earn less and that is a target area for us.
Public sector employers should set an example and we need good employers to speak up about the benefits of the living wage. A study we released this week shows that we could create up to 58,000 new jobs if it were introduced across the whole of the UK. Now that is something worth striving for.