Last week Teresa called on the Government to raise the National Minimum Wage to the level of the Living Wage so that families can live lives free from poverty.
Teresa said the need for working tax credits to top up low wages meant that the Government was in effect subsiding the staffing bill for many big profitable companies. She also made the economic case for the living wage, highlighting a recent Resolution Foundation and Institute for Public Policy Research report that estimated that its widespread use could save the Government £2 billion a year.
Teresa said:
“The Living Wage should be adopted sooner rather than later as the national minimum wage. I do not think that it is too much to ask that workers at the bottom of the income ladder should at least be able to make ends meet.
“We need to put a stop to the situation where we are all subsiding the staffing costs for big companies who are then making millions in profits each year. The simplest way to tackle poverty and reduce our benefits bill is to make employers pay their workers a decent wage.”
Read Teresa’s full speech in Hansard here.
