Living Wage



I caught a bit of First Minister's Questions (FMQs) in the Scottish Parliament yesterday and had a wry smile to myself when I heard Labour's deputy leader, Kezia Dugdale, talking about the 'living wage'.

 Kezia was in high dudgeon about the fact that 264,000 women in Scotland earn less than the living wage and said:

 "Just saying that you are for gender equality doesn't make it so."  

 Quite so, I would say.

 But what Kezia ought to stop and consider is that if Scotland's 32 local councils had lived up to their promises over the 1999 Single Status (Equal Pay) Agreement, well over 100,000 predominantly female council jobs would have been earning much more than the living wage - many years ago.    

 And back in those days many of the larger councils were Labour-controlled, of course, as were (calamity) Cosla, the Scottish Parliament and the Westminster Parliament.   

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