Following the council motion reported in my last post, the Oxford LW campaign have stepped up a gear, starting to raise awareness of this among workers and students, while working with the City Council and trade unions to agree on implementation measures. Once an Oxford LW figure has been set, pressure will be directed at the university to follow the council’s lead.
The London LW campaign achieved a number of successes in 2007, thanks to which the proportion of the national cleaning workforce on the living wage increased from 4 to 9% over the past 12 months. Organiser Matthew Bolton says that “the next big sector to crack is the hotel sector. There’s a massive problem of low pay, even across the big luxury chains. Some staff are paid a piece rate of £2.50 a room, which can mean they don’t even make the minimum wage.”
Peter Kenyon of the London Labour Party reports that one of their main objectives for 2008 is a living wage for Corporation of London employees.
And finally in Scotland a broadbased coalition is coming together to campaign for a living wage, which involves the Poverty Alliance, the STUC, churches and charity organisations.
April 21, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Just wanted you to know other people (around the world) are fighting for this cause, too.
I led a protest speech for my speech communications class on my college campus (University of Georgia) last week. Here are a few of the things we talked about:
The government is raising minimum wage to 6.55 this summer, but it has been determined that cost of living in Athens sets living wage at about 10.50.
Cost of living has increased, and wages have stayed the same. Over the past two years, the cost of gas and food has increased drastically, leaving hard working people stuck in low-paying jobs.
If the businesses will pay their employees more, productivity will go up, poverty will go down, and spending will increase. Not only will people be able to support a normal and close to comfortable lifestyle, but crime will decrease.
May 30, 2008 at 1:26 am
Captivity says : I absolutely agree with this !
December 16, 2009 at 9:16 am
It’s true that Cost of living has increased, and wages have stayed the same.
January 14, 2011 at 7:49 pm
As we all have seen all over the world, when ever prices goes up daily living cost increase government give rise in wages as well, but here it doesn’t happen, so question is now how a average income person will survive in these circumstances ?