Campaign group the Equality Trust has launched three manifestos aimed at empowering supporters to fight inequality on a national, local and individual level.
Among the measures called for is action to tackle the 'astronomical' levels of pay inequality in the UK, currently the pay of bosses in both the private and public sector massively outstrips that of workers.
This has created a situation where the richest one thousand people in the UK, the Equality Trust claim, own more wealth than the poorest 40% of the population put together.
The manifesto also calls for action on a national level to tackle the housing crisis through building more social housing, stronger protection for worker’s rights and an end to child poverty.
Key to this is the adoption of a Living Wage, something the Equality Trust have been actively campaigning for local councils to adopt. They renew this call in the manifesto, as well as asking supporters to only trade with businesses that pay the Living Wage.
Figures produced by the DWP for the House of Commons Library give the number of people living on low incomes in 2015/16 as 10.4million, 2.3million of whom are children. In the same report the Institute for Fiscal Studies is quoted as suggesting the number of people living in poverty will rise by 2% by 2022, with child poverty rates going up by 4% over the same period.
The launch of the Equality Trust manifestos comes a week after a Spring budget statement in which Chancellor Philip Hammond claimed to be feeling 'Tiggerish' about the country's economic fortunes.
Responding to the statement Dr Wanda Wyporska of the Equality Trust said, 'we have too many people who are struggling to survive in this country', citing 'rising homelessness, rising food bank use and threadbare public services' as symptoms of rising inequality.
She added that in a country where the wealthiest thousand people hold more wealth than the poorest 40% 'the vast gap between the rich and the poor is damaging our social fabric'.
The National Minimum Wage, based on recommendations made by businesses and trades unions and calculated on a percentage of minimum earnings, is £7.05 an hour and is paid to workers over twenty- five. A Living Wage would be paid at £8.75 an hour, rising to £10.20 where London weighting applies.
A poll of 1016 parents conducted for the Living Wage Foundation by Survation earlier this year showed the stresses living on low pay can cause. Out of the parents who took part 23.9% said it had damaged their relationship with their children, 32% said it was a cause of stress between themselves and their partner.
Research conducted by KPMG found that 84% of the people polled said being paid a Living Wage would make them happier, 78% said it would improve their mental health; 71% said it would improve their physical health.
Speaking about the Survation poll results Katherine Chapman, of the Living Wage Foundation said it was ‘shocking’ to see the ‘corrosive effect low pay has on family life’ adding that without an adequate living wage in place families will ‘continue to struggle to make ends meet, while their family lives and health suffer’.
She ended her comments on a hopeful note saying that ‘thankfully there are now nearly four thousand Living Wage employers who are doing the right thing and paying a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work’.
Such optimism is welcome, however at a time when austerity is still biting deep into council budgets and employers are seeking to maximise profits in a rapidly changing economy the race to the bottom is very much under way.
In such an environment how many employers will follow Katherine Chapman’s call to ‘step up, do the right thing, and pay their workers a decent wage’ is debatable. Good intentions can all too easily be drowned out by the squeals of shareholders fearful for their dividends.
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