Boris to raise minimum wage

[chegrimandi]

Boris Johnson is to increase and extend the minimum wage for tens of thousands of poorly paid Londoners to £7.40 an hour, the Guardian has learned.

The mayor will announce the decision on July 28, committing City Hall to paying the "living wage" to all staff employed by the Greater London Authority and related bodies, including Transport for London.

Following pressure from London Citizens, a group of community leaders, faith groups and unions, Johnson is expected to announce that, from next year, organisations funded by the London Development Agency will have to pay the living wage.

Johnson will also disclose that he will open talks with the hotel and hospitality industry - one of the lowest payers in the capital - about implementing the wage for all London hotel workers before the 2012 Olympics.

fair do's to him...



http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/10/london.boris

 

[Mitre10]

Yeah, nice one.

Definite step in the right direction.

Many here will probably say that its being done to cover up the investigations but it is something that will postively affect the lives of thousands of the poorest Londoners so fair play to him.

 

[Hi-ASL]

What's the London rate currently (elsewhere it's £5.52, rising to £5.73 in October)?

I mean, fancy not telling you anything as basic as this in a bleeding Gruniad article. Amateurs.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Ok, good. The first decent thing he's done. Maybe he's learning.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

What's the London rate currently (elsewhere it's £5.52, rising to £5.73 in October)?

Same. Min wage in London is just the UK min wage.

 

[Mitre10]

Same. Min wage in London is just the UK min wage.

Yup, its quite a disgrace considering how it is generally accepted that there is a substantial difference between prices in London and prices elsewhere.

Fuck knows how people live on minimum wage in London tbh, am pretty sure I couldn't do it.

 

[Hi-ASL]

Same. Min wage in London is just the UK min wage.

Aye, fair play then. It's a surprising leap - almost 50% more - so fair play. Now we just need the rest of the country to follow suit. Ha. The government is committed to £5.73 elsewhere.

 

[Hi-ASL]

Yup, its quite a disgrace considering how it is generally accepted that there is a substantial difference between prices in London and prices elsewhere.

It's not 50% more though. He's obviously making this magnanimous gesture just to piss off the government and big up the Tories, just because he can. It's political gamesmanship really, but you can't argue with the immediate results.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

To nit-pick, it's more like 30% more.

 

[citydreams]

More showmanship from his royal flopyness.

GLA has been paying the London living wage to all its employees for years, and has been actively campaigning to ensure that all it's subcontractors pay the London wage too.

More spin, less win.

 

[newbie]

What's the London rate currently (elsewhere it's £5.52, rising to £5.73 in October)?

I mean, fancy not telling you anything as basic as this in a bleeding Gruniad article. Amateurs.

The current London Living Wage is £7.20 per hour. That's a long way above the NMW, but it only applies to a small proportion of Londoners- those who work directly for GLA etc and a few other employers, mostly public sector.

BJ is coat-tailing Livingstone, who first implemented the LLW. But I'm glad he is- one of the threats of an incoming Tory was that he might scrap the LLW in favour of flexibility for business or some such.

 

[Mitre10]

It's not 50% more though. He's obviously making this magnanimous gesture just to piss off the government and big up the Tories, just because he can. It's political gamesmanship really, but you can't argue with the immediate results.

Perhaps not daily expenses but for the major things London is one hell of a lot more expensive - rent being the biggest expenditure for most I would say its definitely 50% more expensive than the rest of the country - check out the "how much rent do you pay thread" running a few days ago in general, the disparity between London and the rest of the country is shocking.

There is defintely some game-playing going on but if it benefits the poorest in society as a result then who cares.

Perhaps it will go some way to helping out with the massive kick in the teeth earlier this year which came with the abolition of the 10% tax rate.


(Nu) Labour taxing the poor hardest and Tories advocating higher pay for the poorest... what the fuck is going on, I'm getting confused!!

 

[Hi-ASL]

To nit-pick, it's more like 30% more.

Yes. Or 34.

 

[scifisam]

The current London Living Wage is £7.20 per hour. That's a long way above the NMW, but it only applies to a small proportion of Londoners- those who work directly for GLA etc and a few other employers, mostly public sector.

BJ is coat-tailing Livingstone, who first implemented the LLW. But I'm glad he is- one of the threats of an incoming Tory was that he might scrap the LLW in favour of flexibility for business or some such.

Does that mean Boris is actually only increasing the wage from £7.20 to £7.40, rather than implementing a while new minimum wage, as this story suggests? I mean, it's good that he is not only keeping the LLW but raising it, but that doesn't sound nearly as dramatic as 'Boris increases minimum wage' which implies he's the first one to do it and implies it's not just for GLA workers.

Edit: yes, it is. The article admits that 'Johnson's commitment means, in effect, that he will be continuing a policy begun by his predecessor Ken Livingstone,' but doesn't specify that this previous policy meant that GLA workers were already paid way above the minimum wage.

What a biased article, written to make Boris sound better than he is. And it's in the Guardian!

 

[Hi-ASL]

There is defintely some game-playing going on but if it benefits the poorest in society as a result then who cares.

Well, me, if it's a case of buying votes - as it may look to an outsider (me again).

But if it's a case of honouring commitments already in place, then no argument I suppose. I suspect it will persuade some waverers come election time though, and that's a bit galling.

 

[newbie]

yes that's what it means, and yes the story is spun so BJ appears to be doing more than he is. Livingstone puts LLW up to £7.20ph

 

[littlebabyjesus]

So the article should be:

Boris continues the wages policy of his predecessor Livingstone.

Where's that blank-face smilie when we need it?

 

[scifisam]

So the article should be:

Boris continues the wages policy of his predecessor Livingstone.

Where's that blank-face smilie when we need it?

Yup.

I've actually emailed the Guardian about it, to point out their mistake in using the term minimum wage, the phrase 'in effect' and the use of the national minimum wage figures rather than the current LLW figures. This may be my first step en route to the green pen brigade.

 

[Mitre10]

Pretty good bit of spin though!!

 

[Oswaldtwistle]

Good news. It'll be interesting to see what the Tory policy on the national minimum wage is at the next general election......

 

[Hi-ASL]

pff.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

It is worth noting, I think, that in their one high-profile position of power, the Tories are taking their lead from Ken Livingstone and not New Labour. It may only be a crumb, but I'll take my comfort wherever I can find it with Johnson.

 

[scifisam]

It is worth noting, I think, that in their one high-profile position of power, the Tories are taking their lead from Ken Livingstone and not New Labour. It may only be a crumb, but I'll take my comfort wherever I can find it with Johnson.

Good point. I'm happy for him to steal policies from Ken and pretend they're his own, as long as they're good policies, like this one. Politicians spin things - that's to be expected. What shouldn't happen is newspapers blindly following the politicians' press release, which is what this article looks like.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

One thing I learned from my days as a sub-editor is that you should never underestimate journalists' capacity for laziness.

 

[Guineveretoo]

The current London Living Wage is £7.20 per hour. That's a long way above the NMW, but it only applies to a small proportion of Londoners- those who work directly for GLA etc and a few other employers, mostly public sector.

BJ is coat-tailing Livingstone, who first implemented the LLW. But I'm glad he is- one of the threats of an incoming Tory was that he might scrap the LLW in favour of flexibility for business or some such.

Indeed.

Some kudos needs to go the trade unions (yes, I know I would say that), who negotiated this.

 

[HackneyE9]

Does this really apply to "tens of thousands of Londoners"???

How many people does the GLA, LDA and TFL employ??

And as for "holding talks with the hotel industry" on doing likewise, er, yeah, right, good luck with that. I'm sure they're quaking in the boots at being asked to cut their profits voluntarily by Boris £250k a year for a column Johnson. What does that hourly rate work out at? Say, generously, it takes three hours to write his column?

 

[Guineveretoo]

I am not sure how many staff those bodies employ, although it's a lot, but the only people to whom this directly applies are those who are at the bottom of the salary heap, as it were. So, tens of thousands it ain't.

 

[CharlieAddict]

£7.40ph is still only £13,320 per annum!

how the fuck is it possible to live on that!??

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

So hold on, let me get this right. Boris as carried on a policy set by Ken that affects only the very very poorly paid people at the GLA and TFL (can that really be thousands of people?). I'm glad it's been set but this looks like massive spin.

 

[smokedout]

I am not sure how many staff those body employ, although it's a lot, but the only people to whom this directly applies are those who are at the bottom of the salary heap, as it were. So, tens of thousands it ain't.

it's also worth pointing out that inflation is currently running at 3.3% (yeah right) and this represents a 2.7% increase so the correct headline would have been 'Boris to cut London minimum wage'