Labour leadership contender wants care workers to be paid the Living Wage

Liz Kendall who wants to be the next leader of the Labour Party, has said she wants to create a living wage society and will ensure that care workers are no longer exploited and receive the pay they deserve.

Ms Kendall was speaking at a ‘Liz for Women’ event in central London and said if she wins the leadership she wants to deliver a Low Pay Commission, not just a Minimum Wage Commission.

The MP for Leicester West wants the legal remit of the Low Pay Commission, the body which sets the level of the national minimum wage, to be expanded.

Ms Kendall said: “We must tackle the inequalities in power, wealth and opportunity that scar our country and hold us all back.

“That why today I’m pledging to move Britain to a living wage society, and that one of the first areas I will take action on as Labour leader is the scandal of low pay in social care.”

Ms Kendall, who is currently shadow minister for care and older people, has asked three people to look at how to address low pay in social care immediately. They are Baroness Denise Kingsmill, author of a report entitled ‘Taking care: an independent report into working conditions in social care’, Labour’s Mayor for Lewisham, Cllr Steve Bullock and Nita Clarke, director of the Involvement and Participation Association and co-chair of the Employee Engagement Taskforce.

Ms Kendall added: “The minimum wage was one of the most important achievements of the last Labour Government. Labour members are rightly proud of this historic change 17 years ago.

“Now time for the next generation in Labour to build on that work to make sure more people can earn the living wage.

“As Labour’s next Prime Minister I would extend the legal remit of the Low Pay Commission to work with employers, unions and civil society to identify practical, non-statutory ways to move wages towards the living wage, sector by sector.

“Giving the Low Pay Commission this additional remit would protect its independence and mean the expertise and institutional support behind the minimum wage can support the living wage as well.”

Professor Martin Green at Care England give his backing to the pledge, saying: “We fully support Liz Kendall’s drive to ensure that care workers are paid the Living Wage. The complex duties that care workers perform combined with the immense compassion and dedication that they demonstrate on a daily basis means that there is no question that they deserve to be paid at least a Living Wage.”

However, he added: “We face an inescapable reality in which the fees that providers are paid by local authorities have consistently fallen in recent years – a trend that is set to continue in years to come. With the cost of regulation increasing and the Low Pay Commission already noting that along with childcare, social care has the highest labour cost to turnover ratio in the country, many providers are in a position in which they simply cannot afford to pay the Living Wage.

“In order to achieve her aspiration, Liz Kendall must commit a future Government to find the estimated £2 billion necessary to enable providers to move towards the Living Wage. A detailed explanation as to why she should do this can be found in our Five Year Vision.”