Low Wages in the Scottish Tourism Industry

That the Parliament notes that the tourism industry is worth £4.2 billion to the Scottish economy yet those employed in the sector have the lowest gross weekly earnings of all workers in Scotland, some £46 a week lower than those in the next lowest-paid sector, agriculture; also notes that the most recent job centre survey carried out by the Scottish Low Pay Unit found that 88% of vacancies advertised in the tourism and leisure sector paid under half male median weekly earnings and that 10% of wages offered were below the then minimum wage rate, and calls for the tourism industry to address the scandalously low wages paid to its workforce and for the Scottish Executive to carry out a publicity campaign to draw workers’ attention to their legal rights to a minimum wage and, in particular, to target those new Scots from Poland and other parts of eastern Europe whose first language is not English and who are reported to be the subject of illegal exploitation by unscrupulous employers.