Graph: How the minimum has failed to keep up with the cost of living
As the graph from Green Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones shows, the National Minimum Wage has failed to keep up with London’s rising cost of living.
minimum wage
The minimum wage at 15 – fully grown-up?
There is a strong consensus that the National Minimum Wage (NMW) has been a success yet, quite rightly, we are still worried about low pay. Can we do more with the NMW, or should we be thinking about a whole platter of policies to bring about fairer pay?
A mandatory living wage – the debate we need to have
If we don’t raise wages, control rents or reverse welfare cuts, we are going to completely price low paid workers out of London.
The government must do more to promote freedom
One rare piece of good news from the Tory-led government was Nick Clegg’s decision to block the so-called ‘Snoopers Charter’, a draft piece of fundamentally illiberal legislation which would have allowed the security services to monitor emails, text messages and internet browsing.
A minimum wage worker would need to work 380 hours a week to match top earner
A minimum wage worker would need to work for 380 hours a week to match the annual salary of someone at the 99th percentile, according to research by the Resolution Foundation.
The minimum wage vs inflation (graph)
Although the government deserves a degree of credit for seeing off calls from business leaders to freeze the minimum wage, by increasing it to £6.31 – meagre increase of twelve pence – it has yet again failed to ensure the minimum wage is above inflation for the third year running.
Tories living in the land where the Magic Job Tree grows alongside the Magic Money Tree
This policy will only work in the land where the Magic Job Tree grows alongside the Magic Money Tree that ensures all such jobs are well paid. And that only exists in the head of some policy wonks in Tory think tanks.
Cutting the minimum wage won’t be what boosts growth
At a time when the mainstream political discourse seems preoccupied with boosting low pay, living wages and a citizens income it seems odd that the Conservatives would float the idea of reducing the National Minimum Wage. As many have rushed to point out, most evidence suggests that it boosts growth, putting money in the pockets of those most likely to spend
Making work pay…by freezing the minimum wage
The chancellor George Osborne will make a speech today in which he will say the government is “making work pay” through tax and benefit changes. Making work pay is an admirable goal and something that everyone on the left supports. The problem, however, is that the government’s idea of making work pay is radically different to that of most progressives, as a quick glance at today’s Daily Telegraph makes clear.
Always on call: the problem of zero hour contracts
Andrew Tromans is a History and Politics student at the University of Sheffield. For many people the notion of a 9-5 job, Saturdays and Sunday for leisure and even basic employment rights such as maternity leave are just not atest