Ed Miliband to unveil 'living wage' proposals

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

No doubt certain tabloids will re-brand him Red Ed for making such a lefty-pinko-commie suggestion...they'd lose their shit if they saw half of what's suggested on here.
So, Labour standing up for working people everywhere...is how they no doubt see it. Living Wage is fine...control of the means of production is a lil better.
What are you guys doing to celebrate Living Wage Week?

Ed Miliband will unveil plans to deliver a "living wage" of at least £7.20 per hour for millions of people, if Labour wins the next election.
The Labour leader will announce the living wage as a key plank of his "One Nation" vision for Britain.
It comes at the start of Living Wage Week, with events around the country.
On Sunday, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said planned benefit changes would make it easier to ensure firms pay staff a "living wage".
The "living wage" would be considerably higher than the existing minimum wage - £6.19 per hour for those over 21, £4.98 for those over 18, and £3.68 for 16- and 17-year-olds.
As part of its policy review Labour is looking at ways of making the living wage the new norm, including naming and shaming companies who do not pay the wage.
It also wants to introduce rules forcing government contracts to be given to only those firms who pay workers the living wage as a minimum.
Mr Miliband told the Independent on Sunday: "You go out, slog your guts out... you deserve a decent wage if the company can afford it.
"We've got a growth crisis in Britain, but we've also got a living standards crisis because the proceeds of economic growth are not being fairly distributed any more."
The "living wage" would be £8.30 an hour in London, where the cost of living is higher than the rest of the UK.

(More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20202005)

[Igor]

The article doesn't really mention that, so, does anyone know whether the improvement get rid of the absolutely ridiculous age limits for different minimum wages?

[x-punk]

From quickly reading through the article it looks to me like this living wage is not a replacement for the minimum wage which will still stand. Companies will then have the choice whether to pay the living wage or not. So it seems just like a recommendation rather than something which will be mandatory. This looks like a dodge to addressing the minimum wage which has been lagging in line with inflation. Why not just increase min wage instead of this living wage stuff?

In addition, they need to do something about the stripping away of benefits for those who are unemployed and looking at ways of increasing employment as well This proposal would be good for those on minimum wage but it certainly wont help unemployment and may even increase it.

[bricolage]

I don't get why this is such big news, there's already a living wage and firms could implement it if they want. This won't be any difference and despite this posturing Labour are never gonna increase the minimum wage to this level.

[ed miliband]

Mr Miliband told the Independent on Sunday: "You go out, slog your guts out... you deserve a decent wage if the company can afford it."

lol

[x-punk]

The article doesn't really mention that, so, does anyone know whether the improvement get rid of the absolutely ridiculous age limits for different minimum wages?

Doubt it from reading the article. Looks just like a recommendation for what a person in a given set of circumstances requires to live. In fact, it looks like they are going to completely ignore changing the minimum wage levels.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

It seems to be more of an excuse to not have to pay people benefits than any sort of drive to give people better lives. That way Milliband, if Labour is elected, can say 'under our government we've cut the people on benefits by X amount' when those people wouldn't have any significant change in their lives at all and still be scrounging a living.

[piet11111]

So the living wage is still not mandatory and even those company's that pay it are still only giving a poverty wage.

Wow Miliband is really doing some serious class war fighting here :thumbdown:

[brigadista]

tosser - Boris johnson is agreeing with this so there is a catch somewhere -

labour party are completely useless

[GiantMonkeyMan]

It's a strategic and cynical political move by labour, to be honest. At the TUC demo on the 20th there were some calls for a living wage. Miliband got booed during his speech so he's probably trying to appease some in the unions. He knows it'll have little to no effect on those who work for so little and companies can so very easily opt out.

[Post-Something]

It's not mandatory, but I'm pretty sure they give companies incentives for doing it, some help with their taxes or something. It's mainly just to help with all the money the government has to dish out for benefits though, better than simply cutting benefits, or putting a cap on them I guess.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

living wage is crap, nobody pays it in real jobs.