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Laughable research denies low-pay scandal
Low pay is endemic, especially among young workers, photo by Petteri Sulonen/CC (Click to enlarge)
Helen Pattison, London Socialist Party
If you didn't laugh, you would cry.
That's how many young adults will have felt when, sat in their bedsits, back living in childhood bedrooms, or sitting in their single rented room in a shared house, they read that actually they are benefiting from better pay according to the Resolution Foundation.
This latest research by the think-tank brushed over the fact that all the current minimum wage rates are all below what is needed to live off. That's five million people.
But research by the Young Women's Trust has actually found that one in five young people are illegally paid less than the minimum wage.
The Resolution Foundation research also ignored all the other factors affecting people, such as the cost-of-living crisis.
Rising rents has seen a growth in overcrowding and homelessness. The minimum wage went up just two months ago, but Living Wage Foundation research shows that the cost of bills is rising faster than wages.
In fact, we are in the middle of the worst growth in real wages for 50 years, forcing millions of families and children into poverty. At the end of last year, statistics showed that those working and in poverty was rising faster than employment.
Real living wage
The super-exploitation of the gig economy and bogus self-employment robs low-paid workers of decent holiday pay, sick pay and pensions. The Socialist Party backs a trade union struggle to win a minimum wage of £10 an hour for all, as a step towards a real living wage.
We fight for rent controls, building council homes, an end to zero-hour contracts and against all cuts to public services.
Bring the major monopolies - including the profiteering energy companies - that dominate our economy into democratic public ownership, under workers' control and management.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
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