Meeting of the Parliament 05 November 2014
It gives me great delight to open this debate on the living wage on behalf of the Labour Party. Labour wants to use this debate to promote living wage week, to welcome the new rate of £7.85 an hour and to enable the Parliament to discuss how we can take forward this issue so that we can ensure that more people in Scotland are paid the living wage.
The report that was produced by KPMG at the start of this week details the fact that 413,000 people in Scotland are not currently paid the living wage—they are paid the minimum wage or greater, but not the living wage. That shows that we have some way to go in order to lift those people out of property. The £7.85 living wage is what is reckoned to be required to allow a family to be provided for decently and adequately. We need to strive to do more. Some 64 per cent of those 413,000 people are women. More than 250,000 women are not paid the living wage, 150,000 of whom are between the ages of 16 and 24. Those are key groups in our society.
The issue is not just about statistics; it is about real people—the cleaner in Cambuslang, the care worker in Carnoustie—who are struggling to bring up their families with the added burden of rising food and energy prices, and who are trying to get by on a wage that is not adequate.
The focus of this debate must be on what we can do to move the situation forward. I will begin with the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government has put itself forward as an enthusiastic supporter of the living wage. However, earlier in the year, when it was given the opportunity through the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Bill to extend the living wage to everyone on public contracts, SNP members voted that down. That was a hammer blow to the over 400,000 people who are not paid the living wage. It was a missed opportunity given the £10 billion purchasing power of the Scottish Government, which means that it can influence companies to pay the living wage.
The reality now is that, as well as some of the companies to which the Scottish Government awards contracts not paying the living wage in Scottish Government locations, cleaners at Atlantic Quay and in Scottish prisons are not being paid the living wage. The Scottish Government must address that issue. If it wants to brand itself as a serious supporter of the living wage, it needs to ensure that everyone in Scottish Government locations is paid the living wage. That should be an absolute priority.
Earlier in the year, we heard that that was not possible because it would be subject to a legal challenge. I said at the time that, frankly, that was a smokescreen, and the more the issue develops, the more that is becoming clear. Only last week, the Department of Energy and Climate Change announced that all its workers and—crucially—all its subcontractors will be paid the living wage. We are always hearing from the SNP about big, bad Westminster but I question why a big, bad Westminster department has been able to do what the Scottish Government is unable to do and pledge that all its subcontractors will be paid the living wage.
Why are the SNP and the Scottish Government so timid on this issue while people like Boris Johnson are able to be more committed on the living wage? If Angela Constance is serious about it, she should do something about it using the powers in her remit. Angela Constance is one of the contestants in the SNP deputy leadership contest and there seems to be very little to differentiate between the candidates. In recent television appearances Angela Constance has been keen to support the idea of cutting corporation tax, but on the issue of the living wage the silence has been deafening.