Ed Miliband’s One Nation circus moves on to tackle low pay this week, with the Labour leader calling for more companies to pay their staff the Living Wage of at least £7.20 an hour. One of his most striking proposals comes from the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards, which is to force top companies to publish details of what proportion of their staff are paid below the living wage. Though Miliband isn’t hinting at raising the statutory minimum wage to meet the living wage – clearly acknowledging the adverse impact that this hike could have on job creation when the economy remains so fragile – he still wants to name and shame organisations which fail to sign up to a voluntary scheme.
A living wage isn’t a bad idea so long as it remains voluntary, although Miliband’s name-and-shame plan does make it sound rather less voluntary: woe betide any company whose name appears on the list and finds itself a target of UK Uncut for not doing something that it has no obligation to do anyway.
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