The Living Wage

We need a statutory ban on anything paying any of its employees more than 10 times what it paid any of its other employees, with the whole public sector functioning as a single entity for this purpose, and with its median wage fixed at the median wage in the private sector, to which manual jobs would no longer be outsourced.

 

MPs and Ministers would be included in that, and there would be a statutory ban on anything, anywhere in the economy, paying anyone more than the Prime Minister.

 

Speaking of the Prime Minister and of other Ministers, and not least in tribute to Bob Crow for having annoyed all the right people by securing for his members rates of pay comparable to those of white collar workers, the median wage of (imperfect though the classification is) workers in social groups C2DE should be fixed at that of workers in social groups ABC1, with the salaries of the relevant Ministers, by definition always including the Prime Minister, docked by any percentage shortfall each year.

 

Far from discouraging education, this would remind us all of its true purpose.

 

Moreover, this formula could also be applied regionally.

In much this vein, there is also the matter of holding Iain Duncan Smith to the logical conclusion of his position, namely a unified system of taxation, benefits, pensions, minimum wage legislation and student funding, to ensure that no one’s tax-free income ever fell below half national median earnings.

 

Some of us have been blogging away for years that there should be a single form of Social Security payment, called simply Social Security, and guaranteeing that minimum income universally.

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, over to you.