Tax Rebate Plan For Woman Workers

Businesses could cash in on a £100 million-plus windfall as a result of Labour plans to help low-paid women workers, a leading member of the shadow cabinet said. Margaret Curran, the shadow Scottish secretary, insisted companies would also benefit from the party's Make Work Pay scheme. An estimated 264,000 women in Scotland currently earn less than the Living Wage, but Labour plans to give a tax rebate to firms that bring salaries up to this level. If all these female workers were given a pay rise, that rebate would amount to £117,480,000, the party claimed. Ms Curran said: Women have borne the brunt of this Tory Government's failure. Over a quarter of a million women in Scotland need a pay rise, and Scottish Labour has a plan to deliver it.Our plan to make work pay for Scotland's women could deliver a windfall of over £100 million for Scottish business - all they have to do is give women a pay rise.'' She added: Scotland succeeds when working people succeed. That is why Scottish Labour will extend the living wage in to the jobs where it makes a real difference to people's pay packet - low paid jobs in the private sector like cleaning, catering and caring.We need a UK Labour Government to deliver a pay rise for Scotland. That is why we need to send Scottish Labour MPs to form a UK Labour Government to get the Tories out. Only Labour is big enough and strong enough to kick out Cameron, and make work pay.'' Ms Curran spoke out at the same time as Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy pledged that his party would do everything we can to expose the reality of a Tory decade for Scotland''. Mr Murphy, who will be campaigning alongside party leader Ed Miliband on Monday, said another five years with the Tories in Downing Street would result in adecade of austerity and low pay''. The Scottish Labour leader said: The Tories don't have the interests of working class families in Scotland at heart. We need to get rid of them, not just from Scotland but across the whole of the UK.Between now and election day we will do everything we can to expose the reality of a Tory decade for Scotland. It would mean more Scottish families in work struggling to make ends meet and more young people condemned to the dole queue. The choice facing voters in Scotland is clear. It's between a Labour Government that will call time on exploitative zero hours contracts and increase the minimum wage to £8 an hour. Or a Tory Government that will inflict even more austerity on families in Scotland that will devastate our nation.The only party that can stop the Tories winning across the UK is Labour. That's why it's so important that Scots back Labour in May.''