Basic wage (From Penarth Times)

Basic wage

I AM a supporter of Church Action on Poverty which is currently running a Living Wage Campaign - that is, a campaign to increase the current Minimum Wage of £4.20 an hour to £5.80 an hour, on the grounds that the current one does not give people proper human dignity and leads to social exclusion.

A part of CAP's campaign is to ask people who have an income above the Minimum Wage to attempt to live on its equivalent during the six weeks of Lent, in order to express some solidarity with people who live on it for long periods (or below it, as many pensioners and people on basic State Benefits do).

I tried this last year and am doing it again this year.

Having tried this last year, I know from the inside that people who are living on the current MW are having a difficult time.

Much more important that my experience of doing this for a short time, would be to publicise the experience of people who are living at this level all the time.

My hope is that some people in that position might be encouraged to come forward.

Phil Kingston St Luke's Avenue Penarth