A few speakers have already said that we’ve made a lot of progress but we’ve got a long to go, but I think very significant progress—and I’d like to mention it, because I was there—was the passing of the minimum wage legislation, which was introduced by the Labour Government that went in in 1997—part of its great reforms. I think that was the beginning that has led now to this campaign. And I congratulate Jane Hutt and Mick Antoniw and others for bringing this forward today, because I think this is a real bread-and-butter issue, as our new First Minister has said. It's about the money that workers have in their pockets after the bills are paid. It addresses in-work poverty, as others here have said today. At one time, we thought if you had a job, that was it; you were out of poverty. Now we know that in-work poverty is one of the hardest issues to address, so bringing in a real living wage is absolutely vitally important to all our citizens.

There are now 175 employers in Wales accredited by the Living Wage Foundation who've signed up to pay the real living wage. Of course, it does particularly affect young people if they're under 25, because the gap between the lower rate national minimum wage and the real living wage is greatest for those in the 18 to 25 age group. That does amount to quite a significant—nearly £3,200 a year, which is an awful lot of money. I'm very pleased, as Jane Hutt mentioned, that Cardiff council was an early supporter of the real living wage, signing up in 2012, and we know that there are a lot of third sector organisations who pay the real living wage, such as Women's Aid, Chwarae Teg and Mind. I'm also pleased that there are 96 private sector employers in Wales paying the real living wage, and in Cardiff, Jane Hutt mentioned the Bigmoose Coffee Company, where the living wage week was launched; PR firm Freshwater, the law firm Darwin Gray, the Cardiff Window Cleaning Company and IKEA, who all pay their staff a fair day's pay for a hard day's work. So, I think we want to congratulate those private sector employers and encourage them, because, obviously, part of this campaign is to encourage private sector employers to do this.

I think a lot of speakers today have highlighted very clearly why employers should bring in the real living wage rather than the UK Government's national living wage. There are moral reasons. We want people to have enough money to live on. But, obviously, there are sound business reasons as well, and several speakers have already mentioned the Cardiff Business School's employer experience survey of 840 employers, carried out in autumn 2016, and I think speakers have highlighted the real benefits of introducing the real living wage, and I won't repeat those.

But I think paying the real living wage is so important to those who are in low-paid work, because it can be the difference between making ends meet and going under. I think we all know the terrible stress that so many families are under at the moment. Particularly, we see people in our surgeries, and the austerity has hit so many families so hard. As a country, we have too many workers who are on low wages, and I know that in Wales we have a particular issue, because a report by the Resolution Foundation showed that people in Wales have the second-lowest increase in wages in the UK after the north-east of England. Compared with a leap in London of wages of 18 per cent, wages here have gone up just 4.5 per cent.

So, I'd like to welcome the First Minister, Mark Drakeford's, manifesto commitment to promoting equality through the fair work agenda and the real living wage, as well, of course, as closing the gender pay gap. Like him, I believe that the most effective way out of poverty and the best route to fulfilled lives, which of course also means your health and your well-being—it means everything that you do—comes through the creation of worthwhile, properly rewarded employment. And the Welsh Government does have a great opportunity to spread the living wage through our supply chains, which would help create prosperity throughout the country.