Cost of living increases as incomes decline
New report highlights the issues
The income needed for a ‘minimum standard of living’ in the UK has risen by nearly a third in four years – just as average incomes for lower earners have declined.
That was the conclusion of research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which was published last week by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University.
The researchers attributed the rise to increases in the costs of food, transport and other essentials. They calculated that the ‘minimum income standard’ is much higher than the national minimum wage of £6.08 per hour (for people over twenty-one).
Church Action on Poverty (CAP) have used the information to calculate that the current ‘living wage’ is £7.60 per hour.
‘People who are working hard on the minimum wage are still unable to feed their families or heat their homes properly,’ said CAP’s Alan Thornton. ‘To prevent further people falling into poverty, we urgently need to ensure a living wage for all.’ He called on Christian groups to pay the living wage to all their workers.
All staff employed centrally by Quakers in Britain are paid the living wage but this is not true of all Quaker organisations or Local Meetings. Meeting for Sufferings, the national committee of British Quakers, suggested last year that ‘Meetings could consider offering a living wage instead of a minimum wage’ (see ‘Government cuts’, 7 October 2011).
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