Meeting of the Parliament 09 November 2023
Our vision is for a wellbeing economy that supports fair and green economic growth and that benefits people and communities across Scotland, providing opportunities for all. The Government has been clear that economic activity should serve a purpose—to provide good jobs, promote fair work, reduce poverty, increase living standards, boost tax revenues and sustain high-quality public services.
We want to build an economy in which our businesses and industries thrive and in which economic success works for all. A successful wellbeing economy is underpinned by our ambition to be a leading fair work nation in 2025, which is an ambition that we share with the Fair Work Convention. We want to be a country where fair work drives success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, businesses, organisations and society as a whole. I welcome the Fair Work Convention’s recent fair work nation 2025 research report, which is a significant and welcome step in measuring progress against our shared ambition.
We are making progress. Figures that were released last week show that median weekly earnings for full-time employees in Scotland grew by 9.7 per cent between April 2022 and April 2023. In comparison, the figure for the United Kingdom as a whole was 6.2 per cent.