Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary Elect says: “We have taken six Usdaw members to the LPC evidence session in Newry to talk about the difficulties of making ends meet while in low-paid employment. While the cost of living is rising sharply, wage growth has been sluggish.  The minimum wage needs to increase significantly to address the squeeze on living standards.

“We are urging the LPC to at least continue with increases that will take the National Living Wage (NLW) to the target 60% of median earnings by 2020. Usdaw’s aspiration is for £10 per hour and we continue to campaign for that.

“Usdaw is extremely concerned about the pay gap for young workers, so we also call for NLW to be paid from the age of 18. NLW only covers workers aged 25 and over, which means that almost a third of retail staff are excluded from it.

“For many young workers, being denied this minimum pay rate reinforces the already desperate position that they are experiencing. They work just as hard as their older colleagues and have many of the same responsibilities outside of work, such as housing costs, transport costs and bringing up families.

“We know that the Low Pay Commission make evidence based decisions and we welcome them giving our members a hearing today. Low pay is one of the biggest issues facing workers and world of employment today.”

Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with around 430,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 28% over the decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.

For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion