MILLIONS of workers will not benefit from the economic recovery unless they are paid a living wage, according to a new report.
A commission chaired by Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu warned spiralling living costs and stagnating wages were creating a "double squeeze" on the lowest paid.
The report, the first produced by the independent commission, said more than five million workers were paid less than the so-called living wage, set at £7.65 an hour (£8.80 in London), compared with the adult national minimum rate of £6.31.
The number of workers paid below the higher rate increased by 9%, or 420,000, over the past year, it was found. Housing costs have tripled in the past 15 years while energy bills have risen by 88% in five years.
Low-paid workers are hit hardest by rising prices and stagnating wages, said the report. Dr Sentamu said: "The idea of making work pay is an empty slogan to millions of people who are hard-pressed and working hard, but find themselves in a downward social spiral.
"They are often in two or three jobs just to make ends meet. With the economy showing signs of recovery, employers that can pay a living wage must do so. They should choose between continuing to make gains on the back of poverty wages, or doing the right thing and paying a fair wage for a hard day's work."
John Longworth, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "Making ends meet is clearly an issue of huge concern to many in Britain today, and we applaud all of those businesses that pay, or aspire to pay, their staff above the living wage."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article