Living Wage

That the Parliament acknowledges the support for the living wage from across the political spectrum, civic Scotland and the business community; notes that over 400,000 people in Scotland are working for less than the living wage and that nearly two thirds of these are women; further notes that payment of the living wage would boost the earnings of a full-time minimum wage worker by over £2,600 a year; understands that Scotland’s public sector spends approximately £10 billion on procurement; believes that this spending power could and should be used to build a moral economy, and therefore calls for the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Bill to be amended to extend the payment of the living wage to public contracts.