Natalie Bennet, the Green Party’s leader took to the stage at a further education conference in central London this morning (24 March) to discuss how low pay is having an effect on young people’s education.
At the National Further Education Conference at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 building, Bennett spelled out the need for a real Living Wage and discussed some of the difficulties facing young people in trying to find accommodation.
Bennett said:
“The national minimum wage for workers over the age of 25 is going to rise 50p, from £6.70 to £7.20. More than a million workers will benefit.
“Now the Green Party welcomes this – indeed George Osborne’s plan to raise this figure to £9 per hour by 2020 bears a remarkable resemblance to the Green Party 2015 manifesto commitment to raise the minimum wage to £10 per hour by 2020. Although it isn’t a living wage – let’s not allow the Chancellor to hijack and downvalue that term – which is set by the Living Wage Foundation, currently £8.25 in most of the country and £9.40 in London.
“What we don’t welcome is the cut-in at the age of 25. As with so many other decisions made by this government, it is detached from the reality of millions of people’s lives.
“The under-25s can try to ask their landlords to offer a discount on their rent due to their lower pay, but I don’t fancy their chances. They can try waving their payslip at their compatriot tending the self-service tills at their local supermarket, but I wouldn’t rank their likelihood of getting a discount as great.
“The government seems with this move to be assuming that under 25s are going to be living at home with their parents – and indeed many still are, for the want of financially viable alternatives – but what of those for reason of geography, relationships or space, we do after all live in the land of the bedroom tax, that isn’t an alternative?”
Turning her attention to employment opportunities for young people, Bennett said:
“And how many employers are going to be looking for the cheap labour option, the option of labour that’s sadly relatively unlikely to be signed up to the protection offered by a union?
Looking back to the 1930s, the reality for many households in the Great Depression was that teenage children could get low paid employment, while their fathers, expected then to be the ‘breadwinners’ were left unemployed. As workers, particularly the boys, reached adult pay rates, they were likely to experience the same fate.
“With a significant increase in pay between those aged 24 years and 11 months, and 25 years olds, there’s little doubt that some employers will be finding reasons for redundancy, for reorganisations, for dismissal, to only or larger employ those on the lower wages.
“That’s only going to highlight the current reality: Far too often now, for young people, employment doesn’t pay, and education and training doesn’t pay off.”
ENDS