When this is all over, perhaps our values will change

From: Linda LamontLewes for a Living WageEast Street, Lewes
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Regarding key workers in East Sussex earn less than a living wage (Sussex Express April 17).

The current lockdown has made us realise who we rely on most in times of emergency to keep us safe, well, warm and fed.

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In last week’s Sussex Express we read that 40,000 workers in East Sussex, including many key workers, were still being paid less than the real living wage of £9.30; in Lewes District the figure is 5,000. And if workers are under 25, they will not even get the statutory National Living Wage of £8.72 an hour. Nationally the average wage is nearly £15 an hour.

Taking a figure of £9 an hour, someone over 25 working 40 hours a week would earn £18,720 a year before deductions. How can this be an adequate income, perhaps for a family, when the median annual earnings (last year’s ONS figures) was £30,420?

When this crisis is over, life will never be the same again, but perhaps our values will have changed.

In the inevitable economic downturn we shall all have to make sacrifices. However we still need to rethink how we pay those we now recognise as essential to our lives; the carers, refuse collectors, water and utilities workers, shop workers and many unseen others, as well as of course all those in the NHS.

If we really mean what we have been saying in these challenging times about those we value most, we shall have to flatten the pay pyramid and cease to exploit our key workers.

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