NJPN Blog: The Real Living Wage - An essential tool for fixing poverty

Fr Chris Hughes

27 February is Poverty Action Sunday. Church Action on Poverty is encouraging Christian communities to be attentive to the voices of poverty. With increasing food costs, a huge rise in energy prices on its way and tax rises, the need to be attentive to these voices has never been greater.

On 27 February, from 3.30-6pm, at Waddington St URC Church, Waddington St Durham, DH1 4BG, Church Action on Poverty will be launching their 10-Year National Strategy. The National Co-Ordinator of Church Action on Poverty, Niall Copper will present the launch of a National Strategy based on the concepts of 'Dignity, Agency, Power. Also presenting will be various groups representing communities in the North East that have experienced poverty and injustice.

If you would like to take part in this event either in person or via Zoom, you can sign up at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/church-action-on-poverty-sunday-north-east-event-tickets-220589799027

An important tool in fighting poverty and giving a people a life where they are included in society and able to spend time with loved ones and family, has been the Real Living Wage. The campaign for people to have an income that pays the bills and enables them to have time for the people and activities that are important came from East London Citizens, as part of Citizens UK alliance. In the process of listening to people's needs in the early nineties, people in their institutions, such as local churches and mosques, many working as low-paid workers in Canary Wharf, said that they were working so hard with a number of jobs or having a lot of overtime, that they did not have the time to be with their families.

It was from their experiences that they realised that there was a grave need to have an assessed income level. The aim of this Living Wage was not only that people could pay their bills but to enable them to have the time for the dimensions of life that really matter. So began the Campaign for what is now called the Real Living Wage. This is different to the Government's notion of the National Living Wage, the Government's successor to the National Minimum Wage. They say imitation is flattery, but the National Living Wage is literally a poorer imitation!

From 1 April the Real Living Wage will be £9.90 an hour outside London and in London £11.05 an hour. For more information, go to: www.livingwage.org.uk/

Here in the North East, Tyne and Wear Citizens is always seeking to increase the number of Living Wage Employers, especially among 'anchor institutions' - big employers that have a large impact on the region, such as Local Authorities and Universities. As I write only one of the Local Authorities and one of the local Universities in the area have been accredited by the Living Wage Foundation as a Living Wage Employer. They are Sunderland Borough and Newcastle University.

Recently, Citizens UK has adopted a national campaign for all Health and Care Workers to be paid the Real Living Wage. Aware of how the pandemic has impacted on health and social care services, it is a great injustice that so many in this sector are not paid this basic level of income. If you are aware of parishioners working in this sector please ask if they are receiving the Real Living Wage. Citizens UK would like to hear their stories. Parishioners of St Mary's, Hexham, Northumberland, have been part of the Hexham Living Wage Campaign, with the Northumberland Local Authority recently agreeing to pay their health and care workers the Real Living Wage

If you go to the Living Wage website you can see all of the 7,000 employers who have been accredited. It includes big names such as Ikea, Burberry, ITV, the Houses of Parliament and Chelsea and Everton Football Clubs. You can also look at religious institutions who have been accredited. From the Catholic community as of 6 February I noted CSAN, the SVP in Scotland, the Jesuits in Britain, St Cuthbert's Care, the Franciscan Missionaries of Divine Motherhood and the Catholic Education Service. They have all been accredited as Living Wage Employers.

However, I think many readers will be surprised to see that of the 22 dioceses of England and Wales and the 8 dioceses of the Scottish Bishop's Conference, according to the Living Wage website, only six of these 30 dioceses have been accredited as a Living Wage Employer. That is just 20% of dioceses in England, Scotland and Wales. The accredited dioceses are the Archdioceses of Birmingham and Westminster and the Dioceses of Brentwood, Hexham and Newcastle, Salford and Paisley.

As we proceed with the Synodal Process, I wonder if we will hear the voices of poverty that we know are out there. An increasing number of people will be making choices of eating or heating. Hearing and responding to these cries, as the cost-of-living spirals, cannot be an optional extra for our mission of the Church in this country or for the Synodal Process.

Chris Hughes is a parish priest at St Cuthbert's and St Joseph's, North Shields in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. He is also co-chair of Tyne and Wear Citizens and a member of Church Action on Poverty North East.

For more information for Poverty Action Sunday go to: www.church-poverty.org.uk/sunday/.

Annual Conference of the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN) 22-24 July 2022 takes the theme, 'Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up'. Booking now at: www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/conference/