THE LIVING WAGE

That this House notes that the voluntary living wage rate has risen by 20 pence to £7.85 an hour outside London; points out with concern that the number of people being paid less than the living wage, on the so-called minimum wage, has risen to more than five million and that this figure has doubled since 1999; considers that this is certain to be an under-estimate with a considerable number of the 1.7 million self-employed living in poverty; and demands that the Government legislates to ensure that paying the living wage becomes mandatory, thereby raising millions of working people out of poverty.