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A Living Wage

The minimum wage is really a poverty wage. Every calculation shows that a real Living Wage – what we really need to provide for ourselves and our families – is at least a pound an hour higher. Greens have won a Living Wage for workers around the country, and now we want more people to benefit.

We’re not in government, but if we were the national minimum wage would be set at least at the level of a real living wage.

And meanwhile, we are using every piece of influence we have to raise the poorest people in Britain above subsistence levels.

Thanks to the work of the London Living Wage Unit, cleaners at Fire Stations across London gained a pay rise in 2007 from the minimum wage – then just £5.35 – to the London living wage, which is now £7.45 an hour.

What many people don’t know is that the Living Wage Unit was set up under Ken Livingstone’s administration thanks to the Green Party members of the London Assembly, Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson.

They held a casting vote over the Mayor’s budget for four years and used it to get a fair deal for all London government’s employees and create the Living Wage Unit to calculate the amount needed to get by in the capital.

While they don’t have the same influence over the new Mayor, Greens in London are continuing to support the efforts of groups fighting for fair pay for cleaners, shop staff and catering and hotel workers across London.

In Oxford, Greens have succeeded in passing a motion through the city council, bringing in a living wage for council workers there.

And in Lewisham, the six strong Green Group is proposing a living wage for all council employees, and are proposing extending this to all council contractors as well.

Greens all over the country are following these examples and campaigning hard so that millions more of the lowest paid workers in Britain get a decent wage – and we really are making a difference