Bill Adams: Fair day’s pay is way out of a world of debt and insecurity

But for growing numbers of people, a low-paid job isn’t the solution.

Child poverty campaigners point out that two-thirds of children in poverty live in a household with someone in work. At the moment everyone else is paying the price but the employer.

We’ve seen a huge growth in payday loan companies, given the real terms decline in wages.

These firms need regulating and Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield is doing great work campaigning for a charter of conduct based in law.

However he would be the first to recognise that the growth of these firms is not because all of a sudden the general public have become hopeless at managing money – it’s because pay is going down and costs are going up.

These payday vultures circle the skies waiting until someone’s washing machine breaks down, the kids need kitting out with new school uniforms or the energy bill to heat the home over Christmas needs paying.

There are other social consequences. Husbands and wives working shifts at all hours are communicating by post-it notes on the fridge rather than having valuable time with their families.

Young couples are putting off having children and worry that their temporarily low-paid jobs are in fact becoming permanently low-paid.

Meanwhile transport costs, energy costs and housing costs are all going up faster than wages.

Pay is falling steadily on average as wages don’t keep up with the cost of living and good jobs are lost and replaced by poorer work.

Yet TUC analysis last week showed that the taxpayer would save £300m per year if everyone in our region had their pay lifted up to living wage level.

Whether it’s in housing benefit or tax credits the state is making up the shortfall even for highly profitable firms and sectors than can afford to pay more. This can’t be right.

Squeezed pay also undermines our economic recovery. With less money coming in there’s less to spend on our high streets. The big firms can afford to ride this out or have no hesitation in closing down an outlet in Yorkshire for more profitable areas elsewhere.

This isn’t an option available to smaller independent firms. Wages are the lifeblood of our economy but we can only afford so much blood loss before a community’s organs pack up.

Since the financial crash, pay across Yorkshire and the Humber is down by seven per cent, which translates to £34 less per week.

It’s not just trade unionists that are saying we need to lift pay. In September, the chief economist for HSBC addressed the region’s business figures at an event in York.

His message was a simple one but perhaps not expected from a major bank – Britain needs a pay rise.

Mark Berrisford-Smith told them “the biggest thing we need to do is get earnings rising above inflation and get ordinary people spending their money again”.

Unless wages improve in real terms, then the only additional spending will come from credit – and we know where that takes us.

The introduction of a minimum wage in 1999 was a huge achievement but it hasn’t kept pace with the rise in the cost of living.

A living wage on the other hand is set at a level that someone needs to be on to benefit from a minimum decent standard of life.

Last week that figure was set at £7.65 per hour, somewhat higher than the £6.31 per hour for a minimum wage but reflecting what’s needed.

The living wage is calculated by experts at Loughborough University but crucially it is set using public input on what are the basic basket of goods a working family could expect.

There are no foreign holidays, satellite TV or smartphones in there but enough pay to be able to live a dignified life.

Yet one in five of our region’s workers are paid less than that.

There is a powerful moral case for ending poverty pay and the Archbishop of York is chairing a national living wage commission.

There are benefits to organisations through better productivity and staff retention.

Our regional economic recovery relies on improved pay and those who are most likely to spend money locally are the least well-off.

That is why it is right to celebrate when employers such as York City Council and the Spencer Group engineering firm in Hull pay all their staff the living wage.

Britain needs a pay rise. “A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work,” starting with a living wage. For so many reasons it’s a campaign our region needs us to win.

• Bill Adams is the regional secretary of the TUC.