Living Wage

Post date: Jul 02, 2012 9:42:36 AM

I did a quick check of the NZ political blogs on living wage - the right wing kiwi blog is just awful.

Made me think even if the speaker didn't inspire and that is what these evenigns are meant to do.

Of course this is something you would expect your liberal socialist parents to support and I for one do. It used to be that the minimum wage was set at a rate that might be what is now called a living wage - but for many people the NZ $13.50 is that if you earn that and work full time you will struggle to cover basic costs.

Taken a bit of finding but apparently the minimum wage in the UK is £6.08 - for workers aged 21 and over and the minimum wage for London is set at £8.30. The living wage is reviewed and reset annually. I worked out Mar that the annual living wage is £17,269 - which makes you "rolling in it" but I guess that is also per person.

Had a Spirited Conversation tonight with the topic of Living Wage. This movement is quite new in NZ and this was obvious - speaker is only NZ person paid to work on programme and almost every questions she was asked the response was "Haven't thought about that"But it did make me come back and look up the London campaign as this is the best organised apparently though not without tensions.

The London campaign website proudly shows David Cameron quote: "An idea whose time has come". Though of course British PM has given no practical, or really even moral support to the implementation.