The Socialist 13 January 2021

Our health and livelihoods before their profits

Our health and livelihoods before their profits

Londoners suffer and Khan piles on pressure

Bosses earn workers' annual wage in three days

NHS Emergency - Fight for a fully funded, publicly owned, socialist NHS

Dispatches from the front - health workers speak out

NHS pandemic warnings ignored - renationalise our NHS

Schools: Act together to oppose unsafe numbers and rising workload

Global capitalism at most dangerous conjuncture since the 1930s

Fully resource the vaccination programme now

Covid vaccine nationalism threatens pandemic response

How should socialists respond to the 6 January attacks on Capitol Hill?

Lockdown 3.0 - fight to make our shops safe!

Ryan Aldred: Why I'm standing for Usdaw's EC

Unison get sec election shows left can win NEC

Royal mail management forced to make concessions

British Gas workers strike against 'fire and rehire' plans

Get stuck in to build a fighting, democratic PCS union

Refund student rent and fees - fight for free education and make the 1% pay

Exams scrapped again - young people need a future with jobs and free education

Help us fund the fight for Socialism

TUSC to hold local elections conference in February

Book Review: Humankind - Dispelling the myth that humans are too selfish for socialism

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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1116/31821

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Bosses earn workers' annual wage in three days

Low pay is endemic,especially among young workers, photo Petteri Sulonen/CC (Click to enlarge)

Ferdy Lyons, East London Socialist Party

Within the first three days of 2021, the already super-rich bosses of the 'FTSE 100' companies earned more than an average worker's annual salary.

For many working-class people, the annual average of £31,461 is still a long way away. For someone on the minimum wage of £8.72, that would mean working 75 hours every week!

While the working class is dealing with insecure work, low wages, irregular shifts and soaring living costs, which have only worsened during this pandemic, the rich are just getting richer. I've experienced all this myself.

I work for one of the biggest pub companies in the UK and get told over and over it can't afford to pay me more than my £8.82-an-hour wage; my irregular and insecure hours are there to benefit me; and topping up my 80% furlough pay is also unaffordable.

To make things worse, the company is actually registered in the Cayman Islands and paid no UK corporation tax last year. Its parent company is in the process of taking over one of the largest supermarket chains in the UK.

This year, my colleagues and I have effectively taken a 20% pay cut, while my bosses have only reaped the benefits with bailouts from tax they've avoided paying.

Capitalism will always work in the interest of the bosses. The Socialist Party makes real demands that will truly benefit the working class.

We need an immediate £12-an-hour minimum wage as a step towards £15, an end to zero-hour contracts, truly affordable controlled rents, subsidised transport and free childcare. All of these things would help lift the working class out of the poverty.

We can't just tax this wealth and think all will be solved. Look at my bosses, they'll just put their money somewhere else.

We need to nationalise this wealth. Bring it into workers' democratic control, so we can implement our demands unimpeded.

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Our health and livelihoods before their profits