Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
London Living Wage Campaign
Launched by London Citizens in 2001, the campaign has won over £40 million of Living Wages, lifting over 6,500 families out of working poverty.
The Living Wage is a number. An hourly rate, set independently, every year (by the GLA in London). It is calculated according to cost of living and gives the minimum pay rate required for a worker to provide their family with the essentials of life. In London the current rate is £7.85 per hour.
The campaign was launched and has been nurtured by Citizens UK. At the forthcoming tenth anniversary assembly of the Living Wage campaign the "national living wage" will be launched as well as the Living Wage Foundation, whose partners include the accountancy firm KPMG, the law firm Linklaters, the retail outlet Lush and others.
To fond out more, contact one of the assembly organisers, Haringey local and HoL member Alvin Carpio or visit Citizen UK's website. If you are an employer or you think your employer may be interested in becoming an accredited Living Wage Employer contact Rhys Moore at rhys.moore@citizensuk.org.uk.
Tags for Forum Posts: london living wage
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I've just been told that the Standard is carrying a piece on this story today focussing on cosmetic chain, Lush's adoption of the Living Wage.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Surely a single person "needs" less to support themselves than someone with a family. Child Tax Credits anyone?
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Permalink Reply by Angela on
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Not necessarily John.
For example, food and utility bills are proportionately not much cheaper for a single person (I'm thinking of my widowed mother rather than a 30s something working single person)
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Permalink Reply by Louise Nazeraj on
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Is this Living Wage supposed to be sustainable without reliance on tax credit/income support/housing benefit? If so it is utterly untenable. With it, yes I would say you could eke out a reasonable standard of living. I know, I've done it.
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£7.85 an hour? That's £314 for a 40-hour week - before tax. There's no way someone could rent or pay a mortgage on anything habitable for that. Council tax and utilities would swallow up a large proportion and how are they supposed to get to said job? Bus fares would be a minimum of £12 a week. Heaven help them if they're a single parent. Nursery fees would cost more than that.
Disgraceful... and the Govt wonder why there's a dole culture.
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Current arrangements mean that all tax payers (the state) are actually subsidising private enterprise through working tax credits/income support.
The only way that anyone can afford to work in these types of roles is with state support – a lot of these jobs are the product of outsourcing of public services, often the only way private companies can afford to undercut state provision and make profits for shareholders.
For traditional private sector jobs, e.g. the retail examples in the article, our tax is being transferred to shareholders in dividends. I have no issue with private enterprise and profit, but do when the social welfare safety net is being used as a method to increase profit margins for private companies.
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So do you think employees should be paid more and dividend holders less? That's how it works in the city and nobody seems to like it.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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As a shareholder in RBS and BP, I can be proud that no public money has come my way in recent years.
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Permalink Reply by alex on
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It's not just working tax credits / income support. There's also the huge amounts paid out in Housing Benefits because rents are so high and wages so low. Again this subsidises private companies and landlords. The best way to reduce the benefits bill would be to bring back rent capping and require employers to pay decent wages. Instead the government is targetting the most vulnerable, and kicking people off disability benefits.
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I am against capping for the simple reason that once you introduce a cap things tend to gravitate toward it. Witness the number of Universities stating that they will charge the maximum allowable.
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Thanks for this Hugh.
On Monday 2nd May, in Methodist Central Hall (2-3.30pm) we celebrate 10 years of the Living Wage campaign which has now brought £70m to 10,000 working families. There will be 2,500 people there and you can find more information here:
http://www.citizensuk.org/2011/04/the-day-for-civil-society-celebra...
It is short notice, but I was wondering if anyone from Harringay Online would like to attend as guests? I have 5 more seats free for the Haringey section.
If you're interested in coming down to see what the Living Wage Campaign has done this past decade and what it plans to do in the future, please email me: alvin.carpio@londoncitizens.org.uk.
*Excuse me for being "promo-ish".
Hope you all enjoyed the wedding.
A
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