LETTER: Living Wage for council staff

Another highly significant event took place at the same time which may have escaped the attention of many of your readers.

The new rate for the Living Wage was announced on Monday 4th November: £7.65 an hour outside London and £8.80 in London.

Throughout that week campaigners celebrated those employers who set pay rates for their employees at or above the Living Wage, the rate that enables a person to live decently and to adequately provide for their family. The campaign now seeks to ensure that all employers pay their employees a Living Wage, to prevent in-work poverty and ensure that workers are not exploited through low wages.

Many people may think that in an area like Horsham poverty pay would not be an issue for local people. This is regarded as an affluent area where people seem largely immune to the worst effects of the economic downturn.

The reality is, however, that a significant number of people that work in the district are struggling to manage on pay levels below that needed to adequately provide for themselves and their family.

The minimum wage, currently £6.31 an hour for those over 21, has been proven to be too low for a person to make ends meet, particularly in areas, like Horsham where housing costs are higher than many other parts of the country and subsidised services are scarce.

That is why the Living Wage has been identified as the appropriate minimum. Yet local people working in retail, care services, agriculture, horticulture, restaurants and catering and many more sectors that keep our community alive, are receiving less than a decent level of pay.

In many parts of the country the local councils are setting an example to local employers. They are demonstrating the value they place on their employees by setting the Living Wage as their lowest pay level.

Horsham District Council is not amongst these and currently sets its lowest pay band below the Living Wage. Our local councillors have justified cuts to council workers’ pay and benefits by saying that this is necessary to maintain low levels of council tax, but the reality is that the taxpayer subsidises poverty wages thorough in work benefits.

So if the council condones low pay through its own actions and sets this as an example that other employers follow, the taxpayer ends up paying more.

We, therefore, call upon Horsham District Council to stand up for council workers, for local people and for tax payers by ensuring that all council employees and those of the council’s contractors are paid a Living Wage.

CAROL HAYTON

Horsham Labour Party, Clarence Road, Horsham