Angela Eagle, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, leads the low pay review. Eagle's remit includes the quality and security of low-paid jobs, young people, black people and ethnic minorities, the disabled, and the relationship between low pay and quality of life.
Tom Clark writes:
The polling shows that the minimum wage was – by a country mile – the most popular policy of the New Labour years. Ever since, the party has been trying to devise popular policies that build upon that without, and here's the rub, pushing up the costs of employment in a way that endangers jobs.
In Labour's last manifesto, which Ed Miliband wrote, it was proposed to peg the minimum wage automatically to the average rise in earnings across the economy. That would make a difference over the years, but its immediate appeal is blunted by the fact that economy-wide wages are so depressed at the moment.
The other thing we heard a great deal about in Labour's leadership election campaign was the so-called "living wage", the idea of pay sufficient for workers to live on without recourse to benefits. With the public funds that might be redistributed through benefits in such short supply, Miliband is desperate to pull levers which can raise pay directly. The question is what practicable policies can he devise to press employers to pay a living wage?
