Two steps we can take to boost take-up of the living wage | Policy Review
The UK’s Living Wage Commission recently
issued a report which set out their blueprint for how the Government can
lift as many as a million people out of low pay by 2020. It is an
ambitious report, based on rigorous analysis of the effects of
low pay, and the commission is to be commended for publishing this
important paper. However, I think we can go further, writes writes
Carole Parkes.
The Government needs to take radical steps to
meet this target, and there are a couple of ways it could do this. This
matters fundamentally to those being paid less than a living wage, but
importantly, because evidence suggests that when businesses pay living
wages they enjoy higher productivity, good levels of staff retention,
and less absenteeism. Too many employers continue to ignore these
business benefits and pay poverty wages. This race for short-term
profits over long term success means that far too many people are forced
to work long hours and rely on housing benefits, food banks and pay-day
loans companies just to survive.
There are therefore very good reasons for the Government to act.
One step the Government should seriously consider is taking a leaf out of its own book on pensions.
