One of the objectives of a living wage campaign must be to secure equal pay for equal work. This means raising the question not just what is a living wage; but what is a fair wage for the work that you do. A fair wage in Glasgow should look the same as a fair wage in Manchester for people doing the same work.
In many jobs there are huge differences in salary depending not only on whether you are employed by the local authority or the private sector, but also on which local authority you happen to work for. This was a major point of contention in the Scottish nursery nurses strike of 2004.
Since 1997 Labour has overseen an expansion of the childcare sector, stimulated by initiatives such as Sure Start, the Child Care Strategy and education funding for three and four year olds. For some time nurses had been arguing that their job had been changing as greater demands were placed on them as a result of government policy, producing more reports, and playing a larger role in children’s education. This had not been matched by improvements in working conditions or in rates of pay. The demand for higher pay led 5,000 mostly female nursery nurses employed by local authorities across Scotland to go on strike for several weeks. The government’s response was to say that it was down to the unions to negotiate settlements with each local authority. Infuriating though this was to the nurses, in the end they were left with pay offers that differed widely between councils, with a gap as far apart as £8.76 and £10.46 per hour in some cases.
The regional differentials remain (a basic grade nursery nurse’s pay can vary by up to £3,000 a year depending on where she lives), though the struggle to earn a living wage is at its most acute in the private sector, where most employers pay nursery assistants the minimum wage and struggle to maintain differentials between nurses and assistants. Salaries now account for up to 80% of nursery turnover, and increases in salary are likely to be passed on in the form of price increases to parents. As it continues to enact policies which will give rise to further expansion of childcare, the Labour government can’t evade its responsibilities to the workers who will implement these policies. Giving staff greater pay and status will reduce staff turnover and improve the quality of childcare. Legislation should be passed to set a living wage for nursery nurses, and the government should make extra funds available to providers to pay for this, so that the increase isn’t simply passed on to parents.
