The Real Living Wage in the Private Sector

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 28 November 2018.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 1:58, 28 November 2018

A number of councils in Wales at the moment place no requirement on the private companies with whom they contract to pay the so-called living wage, but then 15 of the 22 of those councils don't commit to pay their own employees the living wage either. Earlier this—. Well, actually, I suppose I can understand why—because of the local government settlement, they probably couldn't afford to, even if they wanted to. Earlier this month, the Living Wage Foundation said that they did want to see local authorities, as well as other sectors, commit to the real living wage. So, I wonder if you can tell us if you've had any conversations with the Cabinet Secretary for local government about whether there's a way for local government perhaps to lead on this, or are you speaking as well to private companies with whom Government doesn't contract but are big enough to include these social obligation clauses, so that they perhaps can do this?