Extending the Living Wage Vital to the Highland Council Area says Rhoda Grant MSP

14th May 2014

The living wage should be more actively promoted across the Highlands Council Area, Rhoda Grant MSP has said, after figures showed that 90% of Scots think that companies should pay the living wage.

There are around 19,570 people across the Highland Council area who are paid less than the living wage, currently set at £7.65 an hour. It would mean an annual raise of £2,600 to a full time minimum wage worker.

Rhoda Grant MSP is a long time campaigner for the living wage and says the time has now come to actively promote the payment of it in the private sector, and has urged the Scottish Government to back a tax rebate for firms who pay it, as well as establish a National Living Wage Strategy.

This week proposals from Scottish Labour to deliver the living wage to workers on public contracts were defeated as the SNP and Conservatives voted to block amendments to the Procurement Reform Bill.

Rhoda Grant MSP said “The living wage cannot be something the Scottish Government pay lip service to. They voted with the Tories to block Labour proposals to deliver a pay rise to home carers, cleaners, caterers and other staff working on public contracts across Scotland.

The living wage is good for our communities and good for our economy across the Highlands and Islands It is vital that we do more to promote it.

It is time now to step the campaign up a gear. Labour is proposing a £1000 tax rebate to employers who pay the living wage, as well as establishing a National Living Wage Strategy reporting and accountable to Parliament, to further the case for the living wage so that everyone gets a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.

I know from my surgeries, correspondence and from speaking to people on the doorstep in from Thurso to Fort William and from Nairn to Portree what a huge difference the living wage would make to people suffering from rising rents, mounting energy bills and spiralling child care costs.

Research has shown the practical effects. 47% of people would use the living wage boost to pay bills, it is a pay rise which is desperately needed for the 19,000 plus workers in the Highlands and the 400,000 people across Scotland who are not paid the living wage.

That is why we need to promote it more effectively and aggressively to protect communities and grow the economy all over the Highlands and Islands and across Scotland.”