Kshama Sawant, Socialist Seattle councillor, hands out placards at protest for $15 an hour, photo Socialist Alternative

Kshama Sawant, Socialist Seattle councillor, hands out placards at protest for $15 an hour, photo Socialist Alternative   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Simon Carter

Low-paid workers, typically employed in fast-food outlets and high street shops, have been the focus of trade unions and activists in the global day of action on 15 April.

Socialist Party members have been campaigning for a £10 an hour minimum wage now (compared to the current £6.50 an hour legal minimum), an end to zero-hour contracts, and for trade union workplace organisation.

The Labour Party has said it will increase the minimum to £8 an hour but only by October 2019 – a measly 30p an hour annual increase.

The Greens, who are projecting themselves as the anti-austerity alternative in the general election, echo the demand of the Socialist Party and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in calling for a £10 an hour minimum wage rate – but not until 2020.

Seattle

Successful action to drive up the minimum wage above the federal rate in the USA has progressed in cities such as Seattle, where Socialist Alternative councillor Kshama Sawant successfully moved a resolution committing employers to pay $15 an hour – which came into effect earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Citizens UK charity has pointed out that supermarket workers paid the minimum wage are forced to claim top up benefits amounting to £11 billion a year in total.

In effect, these highly profitable, but low-paying, supermarkets are being subsidised £11 billion by public finances.