Following a meeting at St Thomas’ Church Hall this week, it has been announced that the Living Wage Foundation has agreed to extend its franchise to Jersey.
The licence will be taken on by Caritas Jersey, a Catholic charity, which will provide information to employers, accredit living wage businesses and organise events to focus on the issue of low pay.
The living wage is a rate of pay above the minimum wage level that is considered high enough to maintain a normal standard of living.
In his July budget this year UK Chancellor George Osborne announced that the national living wage in the UK will be set at £7.20 per hour from April next year, rising to £9 by 2020.
Earlier this year, a review by the Chief Minister’s Department found that the Island’s minimum wage, combined with available income support to low earners, was already meeting the requirements of a living wage.
At the meeting, Deputy Andrew Lewis, who is campaigning for the introduction of a living wage in Jersey, said that he feels people should not be expected to work for wages which ‘condemn them and their families to a life of in-work-poverty’.
He said: ‘It is a fact that some people in this Island are having to work two or three jobs simply to make ends meet. Children suffer the consequence of absent parents which cannot be right.
‘It could be construed that the taxpayer is subsidising employers to pay a minimum wage.’
He added that employers should consider the benefits of paying a living wage and pointed out that firms who have adopted the living wage in the UK and US have seen reduced absenteeism, greater staff retention, increased productivity and a more motivated workforce.
Caritas Jersey executive director John Scally said: ‘The Board of Caritas Jersey has now agreed to work with Deputy Lewis and other interested parties in a campaign to encourage local companies pay their staff a living wage.
‘This is a moral as well as an economic issue and Caritas Jersey is pleased to be part of this campaign.’
Deputy Lewis hopes that the Jersey branch of the Living Wage Foundation can be set up before the end of the year.
Caritas Jersey is based in the Welcome Centre in Val Plaisant St Helier. For more details visit their website.
There is no consistent way of calculating living wage rates across different jurisdictions with campaign groups in each country choosing their own method.
Governments are not responsible for calculating or setting living wage rates. Employers choose to register with a campaign group if they commit to using the living wage rate.
There has been a very limited take-up of living wage rates amongst employers in typical low wage sectors.
Based on the calculation used to set the London living wage, and adjusting for local costs, the minimum wage rate already in use in Jersey (£6.78 from 1 April 2015) satisfies the living wage requirement.
As Jersey’s existing minimum wage would satisfy the living wage requirement, there would be no savings to States expenditure (benefits and supplementation) or increase to States revenue (taxes). Even if a higher living wage rate is introduced, the number of workers who would see an increase in wages is likely to be very small, leading to very limited savings to States expenditure.
Increasing the minimum wage over time, as agreed by the States in 2010, would have a positive impact for all low wage earners.
