About the Just Wage Campaign

Just Wage is a campaign for lowering income gaps through the use of fixed salary ratios. We want employers, particularly social justice organisations such as charities and trades unions to commit to the principle that the gap between the highest and lowest paid workers should be no more than 1:5. For example, if the Chief Executive is paid £100,000, the cleaner should be paid no less than £20,000 pro rata.

To find out more about the reasons for the campaign, please read the FAQ.

Now that campaign 1, the Unite General Secretary campaign is over, this blog will be used for occasional updates with news from the equality campaign sector.

A highly recommended hub of information in the area of equality and economic justice is http://www.onesociety.org.uk

If you would like to publicly support us as a trade union member, shop steward or organisation or even as an individual, email us at justDOTwage AT googlemailDOTcom.

Inequality update

We all know where we are now - the income gap in the UK has continued to grow to obscene proportions and the Coalition government are pushing for regional pay as another way of lowering wages further. The unions have proved ineffectual so far in mobilising members to do anything more than a one day strike and marching from a to b to listen to a speech by Ed Miliband. Len McCluskey has called for an early re-election for himself, ostensibly so Unite can afterwards focus its energies on the next general election. Unite also now has 'Community Membership' that may be an acknowledgement of how high unemployment is these days.

As an international issue, income inequality has also reached the mainstream with the World Economic Forum acknowledging it as one of the three main threats to financial stability.

Joseph Stiglitz has said there is "a worldwide crisis in inequality".

On the other hand, the movement for a Living Wage has become a mainstream issue and is winning in workplaces and sectors all around the country, and the incomes of the rich are increasingly under scrutiny.

One year on - the 99%

This is an occasional review of how the discourse on just wages, wage ratios and equality is going one year on from the beginning of the Just Wage campaign.

First for the bad news - the gap in wages and living standards between Britain's rich minority and the majority is ever-widening, and the Coalition government's ideology and policies are set to maintain that situation for the foreseeable future.

However, history may well show that the extreme iniquity of this government's approach ultimately fuels and propels the discourse. Some examples of recent developments:

London Assembly Member Darren Johnson has called for a 'Fair Pay Mark' similar to a Fairtrade Mark. His report here. 

The Resolution Foundation has produced a tool for checking where you stand in the UK income distribution league table. http://www.livingstandards.org/features/where-do-i-stand/

The current National Institute Economic Review journal focuses on poverty and inequality and highlights that current government policies are likely to increase inequality and stifle social mobility. 

Islington has become the first London borough to promise a maximum 10:1 pay ratio between top and bottom-paid paid employees.

Richard Wilkinson's TED talk on 'how economic inequality harms societies' nears half a million views.

71% of 11-18 year-olds say inequality was either mostly or partly to blame for the riots this year.

The Archbishop of York: “If [CEOs] have a responsibility to their staff, it is hard to imagine a more powerful way of telling some people that they are of little value than to pay them one-third of one percent of your own salary”. 

George Monbiot has written an awesome myth-busting essay on high pay "Intelligence? Talent? No, the ultra-rich got to where they are through luck and brutality."  http://www.monbiot.com/2011/11/07/the-self-attribution-fallacy/

And I would say most significantly of all, the Occupy Movement has addressed the roots and branches of economic injustice and given us the most useful 'ratio' of all as a powerful rallying point: 99% 

The focus is particularly on the banks, and with good reason. As just one example: "Barclays' top executive's earnings have increased by a stratospheric 4899.4% since 1980, whilst wages for the average worker have only seen a three fold increase."
 

Even the private sector are doing some reflection. Here's a great blog post about "what the protestors are angry about": 

In last 20yrs CEO pay up 298.2%, corporate profits up 106.7%, production workers' pay up 4.3%: http://t.co/9bdclV0q

To get regular updates about these issues, I recommend following One Society on Twitter  https://twitter.com/One_Society and signing up for their newsletter http://www.onesociety.org.uk

Just Wage - Summary of Campaign 1

In 2010, the UK's biggest trades union UNITE held elections for the post of General Secretary - their most senior elected officer. We asked the candidates in this elections to commit to:

1. a just wage within their organisations and

2. support for a campaign for just wage ratios in the sectors where the union organises (eg. nonprofit, public and private)

This blog kept track of the progress of the campaign, provide information about the reasons for the campaign and case studies of unjust pay gaps and salaries in the UK.

We also collected signatories for the campaign.

To find out more about the reasons for the campaign, please read the FAQ.

If you would like to publicly support us as a trade union member, shop steward or organisation or even as an individual, email us at justDOTwage AT googlemailDOTcom.

Results are in!

So it's Len McCluskey. I would say it's a great result that the fat cat's anointed successor did not win. Time will tell what approach the new Unite General Secretary to the growing gap in wages and wage ratios in particular.

This stage of this campaign is now closed, and many thanks to all the supporters and campaigners over the last months.

Laura

Hurrah!

The High Pay Commission is go!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/09/executive-pay-inquiry-launched?CMP=twt_gu

Good on the Joseph Rowntree charitable trust.

Candidate response 2: Gail Cartmel

Gail Cartmel, the one woman candidate in the Unite General Secretary election has responded to the Just Wage Campaign in her blog and has contacted us. Here is what she has said to us:

I agree that the 1:10 Just Wage Campaign ratio although 'achievable' and an improvement on the government's suggested 1;20 is still too high.

A just wage ratio for Unite is an idea I support, whether this is 1:5 would need to be discussed with the union's workforce TU representatives. This is a challenging debate I welcome and would open interesting discussions about other aspects of the union's pay and rewards policy.

A politican's answer but broadly positive. Two candidates to go...

The blog post is here:
http://www.gailcartmail.com/2010/10/wage-ratio-campaign.html