Well, I'm glad someone who wears the blue rosette is acknowledging the fact that there's a problem, but what the hell is the point in having a National Minimum Wage in the first place if the only thing compelling employers to offer a salary that's within shouting distance of the cost of living is peer pressure?Boris Johnson has called on David Cameron to follow his lead by paying all staff across Whitehall the London living wage as he announced the new rate of £8.55 for workers in the capital, following a 25p increase.
The prime minister came under pressure as Johnson and Labour leader Ed Miliband held separate events to press the case for employers to pay workers a living wage, well above the minimum rate for adults of £6.19, to ensure they can enjoy a decent standard of living.
The living wage rate outside London will also rise by 25p to £7.45, benefiting thousands of workers, it was announced on Monday.
The London mayor unveiled a newly designed trademark that formally recognises and accredits employers who pay the London living wage, courtesy of the Living Wage Foundation, which hopes the mark will become as recognisable as the Fair Trade logo. But it emerged that the Greater London Authority, which Johnson oversees, has yet to be added to the 76-strong list of accredited employers and that none of the five London borough councils on the list is Tory-controlled. The GLA is on a separate list of 44 employers in the process of being accredited.
However, Johnson, who has for the past eight years championed the LLW, established in 2005 by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, pressed home the benefits for London firms of paying a rate £2.36 above the minimum wage.
He said "some of the most red-blooded capitalist firms you can imagine" were signing up to the LLW because they realised it helped to create productivity as well as ensuring staff can enjoy a decent standard of living, and urged Conservatives up the river in Westminster to follow suit.
Cameron hailed the living wage as a "good and attractive idea" before the general election in 2010 and vowed that as the biggest employer in the country the government would take the lead to ensure "fairness will begin to be hardwired into pay scales up and down the country". But two years on, the LLW has yet to be systematically deployed across Whitehall. Johnson urged Cameron's government to support low-paid workers in the capital.
Johnson said: "I would like to see Whitehall generally in London, I would like to see Labour councils, Tory councils, Liberal councils, supporting low-paid workers and pay the London living wage.
"A huge number of public sector workers could benefit from this." Pressed on the fact that he is the only Conservative in the capital to show leadership by implementing the LLW rate to all GLA staff, Johnson said: "I've certainly heard David Cameron support this and give very clear and categorical backing for what we are doing, so that's good."
However, Johnson declined to be drawn on whether the government should lift the minimum wage to the living wage rates for inside and outside the capital. "I certainly think it's important to pay people decently but we've got particular issues here in London which means the London living wage for the capital."
The PM's spokesman said the government supported the living wage and would like businesses to pay it. But he said it would not be possible for government to impose the living wage as a condition of giving business to government contractors since its legal advice is that this would breach EU's procurement laws. He said most government employees were paid the living wage but this might not be the case with all contractors. He added: "We are not proposing to require it of businesses. Requiring people to pay it would reduce the flexibility businesses have and could ultimately be a bad thing for jobs."
Speaking from Islington town hall in north London, Ed Miliband vowed to address Britain's "living standards crisis" by delivering a living wage of at least £7.20 an hour to millions of people in the public and private sector. He met Labour council leaders from across the UK already implementing the pay structure and promised to find ways to help other businesses become living wage employers. Labour pointed out that the five London boroughs already accredited, and a further five in the process of accreditation, are all Labour-controlled councils and contrasted this to the Conservative record in the capital.
Miliband said: "There are almost 5 million people in Britain who aren't earning the living wage: people who got up early this morning, spent hours getting to work – who are putting in all the effort they can – but who often don't get paid enough to look after their families, to heat their homes, feed their kids, care for elderly relatives and plan for the future. Too many people in Britain are doing the right thing and doing their bit, helping to build the prosperity on which our country depends, but aren't sharing fairly in the rewards.
"It's not how it should be in Britain. It's not how we will succeed as a country in the years ahead because we can't go on with an economy that works for a few at the top and not for most people. We need to change it."
In London, an estimated 11,500 workers have benefited since the LLW was introduced by Livingstone. Johnson said the new rate of £8.55 will be worth £4.5m a year for lower-paid workers.
Johnson blamed the fact that the Greater London authority was still in the process of securing accreditation on "historic" GLA contracts that would see the LLW implemented once they were renewed. Aides to Johnson said the GLA was implementing the LLW "100%" for its staff but not yet for all external contractors, and that the paperwork for such a large organisation, encompassing five functional bodies, meant the accreditation process was taking longer.
Rhys Moore, director of the Living Wage Foundation, said the living wage movement was growing as more employers realised the benefits of paying the rate. "Like Fair Trade, it represents a new standard for responsible business. We hope to see the living wage mark and symbol spreading further and further across organisations in the UK."
More than 80 employers have been formally accredited to the foundation, with 47 awaiting accreditation and a further 73 saying they are committed to paying the rate. Around 200 employers in London support the campaign, ranging from banks to universities.
And £8.55 an hour seems like a rather optimistic estimate (dare I call it a Conservative one?) of how much it costs to actually live in this country, if by "live" you mean a somewhat higher quality of life than just muddling through from pay packet to pay packet.
