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One in five workers at Wigan Council low paid
ONE in five Wigan Council workers are paid below the living hourly wage rate, it has been revealed.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has found that last year 1,176 (20.7 per cent) of the authority’s staff were paid less than £7.20 an hour – the minimum amount deemed necessary to cover costs such as housing, food and utilities for themselves and their family. In the first six months of this year, this had been reduced to 565 (11.79 per cent).
The living wage rate, worked out by the Living Wage Unit, is far higher than the UK’s national minimum wage of £6.08 an hour for adults and £4.98 for 18-to 21-year-olds.
Wigan Council’s Director of Corporate Services Paul McKevitt said: “The pay and terms and conditions of employment for local government workers are set out by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services. These are the result of negotiations between trade unions and Local Government Employers. Wigan Council abides by these nationally agreed pay grades.
“There are a number of reasons the figures for the number of people being paid less than £7.20 has fallen over the past six months. Some employees received their annual pay increment which has taken them above this rate. Other employers have left the council’s employment and now work for outside providers, whilst others have left under the council’s Voluntary Redundancy Scheme.”
However, many believe employment skills training and he benefits system is the way to help regain confidence and prosperity in local economies.
Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The best way to improve the prospects of people on low incomes is by boosting their skills and building a stronger economy with more opportunities for everyone. But to the extent we want to redistribute income to them now we should use the benefits system rather than creating minimum incomes that might be satisfying but will result in more people languishing out of work.”
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Comments
There are 18 comments to this article
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jamesjoseph
Friday, February 17, 2012 at 11:15 AMThe private sector workers won't get behind the public sector workers because they are much better off and in the past have shown a complete disinterest in backing the private sector.Also the unions are a bunch of hypocrites,they are encouraging strikes by the public sector in order to get better pensions and yet when GORDON ROBBER BROWN raided the private sector pension funds they just sat back and did nothing.
thascarntspayk
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 04:27 PMi went for an interview at wigan council,when i got there they asked me if i have been in the army,i said yes i was in iraq 1992 and got both my testicles blown off by an improvised explosive device.they then asked me if i like cups of teas.i said no i never have liked tea.they then said congratulations you have the job,start at 10am monday.i couldnt believe it but i asked why do i start at 10am and the rest of the lads start at 8am.they said because the first 2 hours we stand about drinking brews and scratch our boll_ _ _s.
thascarntspayk
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 04:09 PMPending Moderation
Truth Advocate
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 07:10 PMIndia correction : www.economist.com\node\21528626 (nb change slash to opposite direction to work), although don't hold your breath the way our MPs and fatcats are selling us out, we will probably end up working for the chinese
Truth Advocate
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 06:39 PMMP, No 13: on income to unfairly penalised - workers over £40k (or £80k if both parents work) get to keep their child benefit of £1750 pa with a delay until next year for change; but from this April low paid part-time workers will lose £3750 pa as eligibility for ‘working tax credit’ is raised from working 16 hours a week to 24 hours - apparently that is not a concern despite affecting 212,000 households - with a total of 470,000 children between them ! ------ On minimum wages hourly rate - only poor employers use the philosophy ‘how little will you work for’ - pay peanuts, get monkey’s ! Both Labour and the Condems have established a rip-off society - fatcats of banking, quango’s and pseudo-charities all milking the system ! ------------------ The only way to improve the economy large scale capital investment in UK owned industry - rather than keep selling what little we have left to foreign competitors, apparently collectively Chinese owned ‘British’ industry is the biggest employer in the UK already - as per an article in ‘The Economist’ magazine !
Mistress Ploppy
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 07:11 AMGoing off at a tangent, but still relevant. The minimum wage was introduced supposedly to help low paid workers, and I'm sure it did help a significant number. Unfortunately the minimum wage is now seen as a target, so many jobs that initially would have attracted £7 or £8 and hour now pay the minimum wage, and employers can offer this with no guilt.
PercySnodgrass
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 09:39 PMComment 6: InvisibleMale - It is not the Council workers who are complaining about their pay, it is the journalists at the local newspaper offices. With the constant threat of job loss and very little job security I am sure that the majority of workers employed by Wigan Council are, in fact, just happy to be employed. Comment 5: Victor Rant - Nothing makes them more special than any of the rest of us but I am sure your life would be a lot more difficult without them. The Council supplies services such as street cleansing, waste disposal, pest control, public health interventions, animal wardens, traffic control, anti-social behaviour intervention, alley gating, markets control, litter control, trading standards, highways repairs, the list goes on. The employees on the field doing this work, and the back office staff supporting them are worth every penny in my opinion. I work in the private sector and I in earn £9.84 ph. I work hard and I work well. If someone sitting on their high horse came along and told me I wasn't worth my wage, I would be pretty annoyed. The work I do is valuable to the economy, environment, and to the community. If you haven't been able to get yourself a higher paying job, that is your problem but you shouldn't take it away from people who have been able to. Maybe local government should pull their services for a couple of weeks and see how the people complaining about council staff cope without them.
Dilbert
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 09:33 PMInvisibleMale, the average hourly rate in this country (excluding the top and bottom 5%) is around £14.50. If you're earning less than that then you're in the minority. Rather than feeling sorry for yourself and wishing ill on those earning more than the minimum wage, why not pull your finger out and try and join them?
finchman
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 09:28 PMPending Moderation
Fingolfin
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 08:59 PMSigh. Paying everyone a 'living' or 'minimum' wage only does one thing, that is to push up prices and make the 'living' or 'minimum' wage no longer a good wage to earn. Simple economics, pay people what they are worth, not some arbitrary set value.
exiledwiganer
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 05:53 PMThere was a time when workers, private or public sector, stuck together to push for better conditions, pensions and wages, etc. This government has succeeded in getting us to fight amongst ourselves. We are that busy moaning about each other and what we have or haven't got that none of us is focussing on the real culprits - the Government. There are things wrong in the public and private sector but fighting each other won't make one jot of difference. We ALL need to fight and moan about the politicians and the privileged few that make up the Government!
Scarecrow
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 05:43 PMInstead of just moaning about what others are on on, why don't you fight for a pay increase and better conditions of employment like your parents and grandparents did. No, today you all just sit back and moan about others and let the employers get away with walking all over you.
InvisibleMale
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 04:19 PMnumber 5 (victor rant) 100% right..id love to get 7.20 a hour...so it covers my housing, food and utilities....try working for the national minimmum wage and then see how low paid u lot are.....very little to live off...no pension, struggling to live and survive in these very though times and climate...now thats a real problem for alot of people...these over ego-ed and very over paid council workers should be happy to have a job and a very well paid job at that....id give my right arm for a job like theres....Underpaid My ***...get back to reality, with the rest of us little people down here.. What A Joke
Victor Rant
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 03:42 PMWhat about the hundreds of thousands if not millions of private sector workers earning less than £7.20 an hour ? That don't have anything like the pension, sick pay and holidays that council workers have. What makes council workers so special that we have to keep worrying about them ?
billingewiganer
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 03:13 PMwhat about the people who work for contracted out services for the council and who's wages are tied to council pay scales? I suggest there's more than 565 Lets have the full story
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