Reasons Revisited: The Living Wage
Reasons Revisited
Geoff Lloyd
4.8 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The national living wage is going up to at least £11 an hour from next April. Although it's claimed the rise will help two million of the lowest paid workers, many campaigners are saying it's still not enough for a decent standard of living in the current economic climate. The Real Living Wage is one alternative. It's a voluntary commitment from employers to pay their workers enough to meet their everyday needs, and unlike the government's living wage it's calculated according to the actual cost of living. We spoke to Sheila Blackburn and Margaret Beckett MP in 2021 about the history of the fight for a government-set minimum wage. We also spoke to Lola McEvoy back in 2019 and Gavin Kelly about the Real Living Wage and why the campaign has been so successful to date.
Guests
Dr Sheila Blackburn, Historian, University of Liverpool
Margaret Beckett MP, Former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1995-1997)
Gavin Kelly, Chair of the Living Wage Commission (@GavinJKelly1)
Lola McEvoy, Formerly of the Living Wage Foundation (@Lola__McEvoy)
More Information
Listen to RTBC 78 Living wage against the machine (March 2019)
Listen to RTBC 221 First they ignore you : Part four - the fight for a minimum wage (Dec 2021)
Learn more about the Living Wage Foundation
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:17.0 | Some shows may have ads. |
| 0:20.0 | The National Living Wage is going up to 11 pounds an hour from next April. |
| 0:24.0 | But what's the idea of a living wage? |
| 0:26.0 | And is this increase enough for a decent standard of living? |
| 0:30.0 | Hello, I'm Jeff Lloyd, and this is Reasons Revisited. It's a weekly fun-sized reason to be cheerful. |
| 0:39.0 | We dig back into our five-year audio archive and brief you on a big idea that's having a moment. |
| 0:47.2 | This week we're talking about the living wage. |
| 0:49.5 | On Monday the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that the National Living Wage would increase from |
| 0:53.6 | £10.42 to at least £11 an hour from April next year. |
| 0:58.1 | The National Living Wage is a pay floor. Workers age 23 and over are entitled to receive at least this amount per hour from their employer. |
| 1:06.4 | The minimum wage is lower. That's the rate of pay that workers under the age of 23 are legally |
| 1:11.2 | entitled to. The Chancellor has increased the National |
| 1:14.0 | Living Wage following the advice of the Low Pay Commission and he's said that it |
| 1:17.9 | will help 2 million of the lowest paid workers. Now confusingly the National Living Wage is different to the real |
| 1:25.1 | living wage which is currently set at a higher rate by the Living Wage Foundation and |
| 1:29.5 | is a voluntary commitment. Many people have said that setting a government regulated minimum wage |
| 1:34.4 | has been a genuine example of progressive change over the last century, but that |
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