Photo Suzanne Beishon

Photo Suzanne Beishon   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

92,820

Council workers who earn less than next April’s £7.20 an hour “living wage”

Widening pay gap

An extra 50p an hour annual increment on the “living wage” announced in the recent budget will amount to diddly squat on reducing income inequality in the UK.

According to the High Pay Centre (what?) top company bosses receive on average 149 times more in pay alone than their workers. This is higher than at the start of the capitalist recession in 2009 when the fat cat/worker pay gap was 120 times.

The widest gap is between advertising agency boss Sir Martin Sorrell and his workforce. His £42,900,000 salary is 810 times greater than his average worker’s.

Bedroom tax cruelty

How cruel is the Tories’ bedroom tax? Newport widow Julie Glover, whose husband and disabled son died within months of each other in 2012 and who cares full time for her remaining son affected by cerebral palsy, is being hammered by extra rent under the bedroom tax.

Julie is even prepared to give up her family home of 30 years in South Wales and downsize, but Labour-run Newport council says the cost of adapting a smaller home for her disabled son is too expensive.