The Cost of Living, in Britain and Beyond
An exploratory study published last week by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation states that about one in four people in Britain are living below the minimum income standard and this is increasing as unemployment rises. The Minimum Income Standard (MIS) for Britain is based on the public’s perception of what is deemed to be a “socially acceptable” standard of living.
According to the latest research a single adult now needs £13,900 a year before tax, and a couple with two children requires a minimum of £27,600 to ensure a livable annual budget. This is up £500 on the previous year. You can check your own income against the MIS with their nifty Minimum Income Calculator.
The MIS study demonstrates that a vigorous public and political debate about what constitutes an acceptable level of minimum income is as important as ever. Furthermore this research can perhaps speak to a wider, international debate on the living wage.
It is widely accepted that it is unethical practice to employ someone but pay them less than they need to live on; and the MIS study helps British society keep sight of what constitutes an acceptable minimum level of income. The MIS study shows that members of the UK public continue to believe that a minimum standard of living should allow people in Britain not just to survive, but to have “what you need to in order to have the opportunities and choice necessary to participate in society”.
Across the developing world however and in the production lines of international supply chains millions are being paid wages that are inadequate for a worker to support themselves and their family. For instance the living wage debate has been argued heatedly in Cambodia where the legal minimum wage in Cambodia is $45 but a living wage has been argued to be closer to $93. Minimum wages in the global south remain fixed whilst the cost of living increases.
The question remains: how can a living wage be defined and how can a living wage be calculated?
How a living wage might be defined and quantified has been long debated by many and dismissed by some as too complex an issue. However the MIS study demonstrates that research in this area can draw valid and meaningful conclusions on what constitutes a locally acceptable level of minimum income.
As for whose responsibility is it to provide a living wage? If companies were to bear the true cost of living for all their staff would we then see business success come hand in hand with a company’s ability to increase the sum of its human potential?
1 Comment
[...] to and eventually took their concerns to London Citizens, a community group which campaigns for living wages and works to improve pay and conditions for low paid workers in the capital. These stories are not [...]