Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Newham Living Wage Campaign - Thursday 22 Feb - Lyn Brown MP

Lyn Brown MP speaks at meeting organised by Newham "Trade Unions for Labour" and Newham "Co-Operative Party". To discuss the campaign to make Newham a "Living Wage" borough.
Thursday 22 February 2007, 7.30pm for a 7.45pm, start West Ham Labour Party HQ, 306 High Street, Stratford, E15 1AG. All affiliated trade unionists/ Labour Party/Co-op members welcome. Please note that the Co-op Party will be holding its AGM immediately beforehand so please avoid arriving before 7.30.

Further details Contact John Gray Newham TULO 0795 769 6299 or John Saunders Newham Coop Party 07956 809 788.
My 21 year niece works in a shop in north Wales and she is paid the minimum wage. Despite working full time, she finds it practically impossible to pay her rent and bills. The cost of living in Wales is much lower than London. Now, if she finds it very difficult to live on her money how on earth can people survive in London on the the same minimum wage level as North Wales? For many years trade unions and community groups have been campaigning for a London Living wage.
Below is a extract from London Citizens on this issue:
The Living Wage is the level of pay and conditions that enables a full-time worker to make ends meet for themselves and their family.

Workers in London should be at least:
Paid a Living Wage (£7.05/hour).
Eligible for 10 days full sick pay.
Eligible for 28 days paid holiday (including Bank Holidays).
Given access to a recognised trade union.

London is an expensive city. The principle of London Weighting, that wages should reflect these higher costs, is long accepted. However, the statutory minimum wage is set nationally and does not take regional variations into account. Due to the high cost of living in the capital, the national minimum wage keeps families below the poverty line. It is currently estimated that 400,000 Londoners fall into this working poverty gap.

The London Living Wage currently stands at £7.05 per hour, well above the national minimum of £5.05 per hour. The background to this figure can be found in A Fairer London: The Living Wage in London (GLA 2006).

For more information about Living Wage figures in other UK areas, please contact Deborah Littman at UNISON (d.littman@unison.co.uk).

7 comments:

marshajane said...

Oh Hi John,
I'll stick a link to your blog from mine :)
Nice picture btw

John Gray said...

Thanks! (which one?)

Anonymous said...

Dear John,
Raising the minimum wage produces a rise in aggregate demand which in turn creates inflation which wipes out any rise in real incomes. This is basic stuff that I thought even the Labour Party had managed to understand since Kinnochio's non-reign. Any sensible policy would remove inflationary London Weightings rather than reinforce them. And while I'm at it...why am I paying dole to thousands of idle bastards in London and the North when guys from Poland and Central Africa are happy to hitchhike here so that they can get a job? Wouldn't be because dole-scroungers and job-dodgers all vote Labour would it? Was it you who told me about the principle of the Labour vote bank? I think it was. The old con - keep 'em poor and they'll keep voting Labour; and snouts in the trough for the true comrades!
Yours on the centre ground
Des

John Gray said...

Eh, no it wasn't and thank you "Des" for reminding me why as long as there are people like you, there needs to be trade unions and an electable Labour Party.

Anonymous said...

I have started a petition on the 10 Downing Street website in support of a living wage :

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/living-wage-2007/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to take steps to replace the national minimum wage with a living wage based on the level of pay and conditions that enables a full-time worker to make ends meet for themselves and their family. Official regional living wage figures should be announced such as the one given by Mayor Livingstone for London (currently £7.05 an hour).

Nick Wall

Anonymous said...

Too bad that Des does not know much about economics. There is no evidence that raising the minimum wage leads to inflation - and certainly no evidence that it would lead to inflation high enough to wipe out the wage gains. I challenge Des to find data to support the claim. Meanwhile, there is some research to suggest otherwise, such as the David Card and Alan Krueger study from the U.S., where they studied the actual impacts of the increase in the state minimum wage in New Jersey, on fast food restaurants on the state border.

The reality is that the average cost of raising wages to a living wage averages less than 1% of operating costs for businesses - and for some, the costs are much lower. Even passing along all of those costs (which isn't necessary, since costs can be absorbed in other ways), it is clear that the costs of the wage gains are low, as they are dispersed over tens of thousands of customers, while the gains are high, as they are concentrated among a much smaller number of workers who are earning poverty wages.

Please stop throwing around junk economics! Do some reading before commenting next time.

Anonymous said...

According to economists, Donald Deere, Kevin Murphy , and Finis Weltch, the Card and Krueger study is contradicted by "common sense and past research." They conclude about the Card and Krueger research,

Each of the four studies examines a different piece of the minimum wage/employment relationship. Three of them consider a single state, and two of them look at only a handful of firms in one industry. From these isolated findings Card and Krueger paint a big picture wherein increased minimum wages do not decrease, and may increase, employment. Our view is that there is something wrong with this picture. Artificial increases in the price of unskilled laborers inevitably lead to their reduced employment; the conventional wisdom remains intact

Looks like "anonymous" needs to widen his reading before commenting. ANON