Miliband sets out proposals for £7.20 an hour living wage

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has said that it is time for businesses to pay its employees a rate that would ensure an acceptable standard of living.

As part of Labour’s policy review, the left-leaning party is proposing ways to make the rate, which is more than £1 higher than the current national minimum wage for adults, the new standard rule for employers. 

The companies who do not pay the living wage could be named and shamed using the new corporate governance proposals, and Whitehall contracts could be minimised to firms that pay their workers at the new higher hourly rate. 

Despite having a strained relationship over the last few years, the Miliband brothers are now said to be cooperating jointly on developing the new policy for a living wage, which would increase to over £8.30 in London.

The Labour leader said: “You go out, slog your guts out…you deserve a decent wage if the company can afford it. We’ve got a growth crisis in Britain but we’ve also got a living standards crisis, because the proceeds of economic growth are not being fairly distributed anymore,” Ed Miliband told The Independent yesterday.

Commenting in The Observer, in a joint article with the Unison general secretary, Dave Prentis, David Miliband asked for “fair pay for a fair day’s work” as part of the “basic deal” for low earners.

“This problem needs to be mended if we are to make progress as a nation,” the pair have concluded.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated that for every worker who has started to receive the living wage, the Treasury would save approximately £1,000 from less squandering on tax credits and from a raise in tax revenue.

Some major firms, including Barclays bank, already pay workers and contractors a living wage, which currently adds up to £8.30 an hour in London, on occasions even higher.

Alexander Clackson