Demanding £10 an hour minimum wage, Downing St, 1.4.16, photo by Sarah Wrack

Demanding £10 an hour minimum wage, Downing St, 1.4.16, photo by Sarah Wrack   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Needed: A real living wage – not Cameron’s sops

New so-called ‘living wage’ is fool’s gold: demand £10 an hour now for all!

In many town and cities around the country, people greeted the government’s new ‘living wage’ – just £7.20 an hour, only for over-25s – with protests on its 1 April start date.


London

Rob Williams, NSSN, addressing the protest outside Downing St, 1.4.16, photo by Sarah Wrack

Rob Williams, NSSN, addressing the protest outside Downing St, 1.4.16, photo by Sarah Wrack   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

David Cameron tweeted on 1st April that the minimum wage for over 25s is being increased to £7.20 an hour, the new “national living wage”, but people we spoke to during our protest outside Downing Street weren’t having any of it.

‘That’s not a living wage’, ‘Why are under 25s excluded?’, ‘Is this an April fool’s?’, were just some of the responses.

That is why we were protesting – because the national living wage isn’t enough to live off and it excludes young people.

We protested to make it clear that campaigners, socialists and the bakers’ union BFAWU – who participated in the demonstration – stand for a minimum of “£10 now” for all workers.

One group passing by said they had been paid as little as £1.50 an hour in previous jobs. They were interested in joining the bakers’ union and supported the call for £10 now.

Ian Hodson, BFAWU, addressing protesters outside Downing St, 1.4.16, photo Sarah Wrack

Ian Hodson, BFAWU, addressing protesters outside Downing St, 1.4.16, photo Sarah Wrack   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

We were joined by a jester in an Osborne mask because the national living wage really is fool’s gold.

Helen Pattison, Youth Fight Austerity London

Cardiff

A clear message was sent to the chancellor and his fellow Tory axe wielders from youth and trade unionists in Cardiff.

That message was: We want a real living wage of £10 an hour for workers of all ages and we want it now! Youth Fight for Jobs held an energetic rally and ran a campaign stall on the living wage.

Members of the public, including many young workers, came to speak to us and support our demonstration while members of the bakers’ union, civil servants’ union PCS, general union GMB and local government union Unison addressed passers-by and people who had stopped to listen.

We are looking forward enthusiastically to building up momentum for the demand for a real living wage in the coming weeks.

Jaime Davies, BFAWU member

This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 2 April 2016 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.