No Silver Bullet Answer to Combat Low Pay
Tonight the Council will be asked to endorse the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Low Pay Charter.
Obviously this is a strategy to combat Low Pay where ever possible but also to alleviate it where not.
The Charter has been drawn up by the Lower Paid Workers Group established last year. The Silver Bullet reference refers to the fact that, whilst it is an admirable aim and something we were proud to achieve in Kirklees, the Living Wage is not a Silver Bullet, it does not eliminate low pay or the problems faced by low pay.
The paper makes 10 recommendations as to the next steps and I am sure the Cabinet agreed to to recommend to Council that our officers be taxed to investigate all these recommendations with an aim towards implementation.
The importance of tackling Low Pay is not only an issue for the low paid, or even for those (obviously not in the Conservative Party,) who have a conscience, or any degree of empathy. It is also an issue for the Super Rich and the Newspapers who support them, even though they have managed to "con" (what an appropriate word) the majority of the population to believe the nonsensical "trickle down theory", it obviously does not work. The Rich just want to get richer.
A "Trickle Up" theory is obviously much easier to demonstrate, any money given to the poor is in the main spent locally and as such becomes a boost to the local economy, making everyone, including the rich, richer.
