Mark Donne says May 1’s elections are an opportunity for politicians to do right by millions of badly-paid people
THE working poor make a significant contribution to our lives. On May 1, we can return the favour. The mass of people classified as the British working poor – particularly those cleaning, securing and serving our cities – continues to grow at speed. With this shameful enlargement in mind, focus must be fixed on political powers nationally and locally, who have singularly failed to address the situation.
When those fortunate enough not to fall into this category do eventually review the scandal of low pay and its web of negative social effects, they will discover the clearest example of policy difference and political apathy available. The following tale of our two most prosperous cities illustrates that the exhausted urban working poor have a vested interest to exercise next Thursday.
The Liberal Democrat and Conservative-run City Council of Leeds, Britain’s second fastest growing economy, recently voted against measures designed to bolt that authority’s substantial wage expenditure – for directly employed and sub-contracted staff – to wage payments set at a “living wage” rate which is over and above the current national minimum wage level.
The minimum wage – currently set at £5.52 – is an important and welcome standard but remains pathetically policed and is, I believe, too low to alleviate poverty. The Government knows of at least 292,000 people not receiving even a minimum wage, while 57 per cent of British children below the poverty line live in households where at least one adult is in work.
The number of people in poverty has risen during the years of a slowly increasing national minimum wage and organisations such as the TUC now suggest an hourly figure of at least £6.50 would go some way to converting the minimum wage into a living wage.
The Leeds vote was disappointing because 149,000 people in the city are designated as deprived and 24,000 workers in the region are known not to be receiving even the minimum wage. This does not necessarily include the unquantifiable number of temporary and agency workers, many of them migrant workers, employed on varying contracts (or none at all) in the area.
Wage inequality is vast; the median weekly wage for all employees in Leeds is £367; the highest paid 10 per cent receiving £775; the lowest paid 10 per cent getting just £121.
The highest-earning women in Leeds receive £595 weekly, the lowest, incredibly, just £84. This travesty is reflected nationally: if you are in working poverty, you are overwhelming likely to be female.
As a single strand of a city-wide campaign – led by religious groups, trade unionists, students and, interestingly, business leaders – the council vote was a good place to start. By ensuring that all taxpayers’ money spent on wages for those serving their city was paid ethically at a fair rate, the authority could have taken the lead in persuading the private sector to follow suit.
This scenario has been turned on its head with many household-name businesses, including Barclays and KPMG, leading the way for fair pay, while a huge proportion of the £125 billion the Government allocates each year for public procurement is handed out without any fair wage commitment.
Karen Pleva, chief of global operations for Barclays, told me: “Fair pay means motivated staff who stay working at Barclays longer. Improving people’s standard of living makes business sense.”
In London, the picture already differs. Work has been done by incumbent Mayor Ken Livingstone to address profound pay inequalities. The establishment of the London Living Wage unit has set a benchmark for the capital.
Community groups such as London Citizens, impatient with central government, have begun wildfire campaigns to address the deliberate construction of a low-pay culture and ministers’ refusal to legislate for those sprawling under the caprice and greed of many temporary employment agencies; a blight on the lives of the most desperate in our labour markets.
Despite real progress, come May Day this year, the facts in London remain stark: wage inequality in the capital is greater than in the rest of Britain and much more needs to be done by the Mayor and the GLA to tackle it. Party dividing lines appear surprisingly clear: as in Leeds, the Conservative group in London remains totally inactive and even hostile to living wage policies. One serving Tory member of the GLA described the concept as “ridiculous”.
The Liberal Democrats – in the north and south of the country – have voted against moves by local authorities to take responsibility for working poverty, while the party nationally is opposed to any move to protect vulnerable temporary and agency workers. Only Labour and the Greens, at local level in London, Oxford and Leeds, have made autonomous commitments to fair pay.
These commitments and their delivery – particularly in London – are more important than ever. In times of spiralling poverty and violence, disenfranchisement and gang culture, with stories of knife and gun attacks by the capital’s young people on one another, it is arresting to learn that workers in London who are aged between 16-24 are four times more likely than those between 30-44 to be low paid.
Further, minority ethnic group male employees are also far more likely to be low paid than other white male employees.
Whitehall must act to address the plight of the working poor. Long-overdue temporary and agency workers’ legislation and meaningful enforcement of the minimum wage would be a welcome start. But the May elections are local elections and local authorities, too, are charged with the responsibility of helping the lowest paid.
These cleaners, security guards, retail workers and care assistants make a significant contribution to our quality of life. On polling day, those who seek office are obliged to return the favour.
Mark Donne is a London-based journalist, writer and political campaigner
