More Scottish Workers being paid less than living wage
Fewer Scots are being paid the living wage despite Scottish Government efforts to increase the number of companies doing so, figures show.
Fewer Scots are being paid the living wage despite Scottish Government efforts to increase the number of companies doing so, figures show.
Statistics for 2016 show 467,000 people in Scotland are in employment and earning less than the living wage, an increase of 7,000 over the year.
The report, by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice), said 20.1% of the Scottish workforce are paid less than the living wage - currently set at £8.45 per hour.
But Scotland does have the third lowest proportion of employees earning below this rate in the UK, behind London and the South East of England.
The Scottish Government has set the target of having 1,000 accredited living wage employers across the country by the end of September 2017, with the Spice report saying 644 firms have so far signed up.
Labour economy spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said the figures show the “total failure of the SNP's flagship business pledge scheme, which involves signing up for the living wage, with only a fraction of Scottish jobs covered”.
Ms Baillie said: “This expert analysis shows that hundreds of thousands of Scots are still waiting on a pay rise, and because of the SNP's economic mismanagement the number is actually increasing.
“It is clear there is no future for Scotland as a low wage, low skill economy. We need a long-term industrial strategy to create the high paying jobs of the future.
“In the short-term, we need a living wage guarantee in public contracts meaning that companies who rely on taxpayer-funded contracts have to pay the living wage to their staff.”
Almost two-thirds (64%) of those earning less than the living wage are women, the Spice report said, but despite this it added: “The net increase in the number of people earning less than the living wage over the year was entirely accounted for by men.”
More than half (53%) of workers aged 18 to 24 earn less than the living wage, with the report stating one reason for this “is that this age group are more likely to be employed in accommodation and food services jobs, which have high levels of people earning less than the living wage”.
Almost three out of 10 (29%) workers in the private sector earn less than the living wage, compared to just 4% of employees in the public sector.