Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:45 pm on 20 March 2019.
That was a very long list, and I'm not sure if you were trying to confirm what I was saying, but nowhere on that list was wage levels in Wales. Yes, of course it's welcome that unemployment is falling, but it doesn't show the whole picture. Falls in rates of economic inactivity are to be welcomed, but that doesn't show the whole picture. My questions today relate to wage levels in Wales, and we know that they've been too low for too long, and we have this seeming celebration of low wages in that tweet, which has now been deleted.
But returning to the living wage issue, these are the figures: in Scotland now, there are 3,000 employers who are registered as living wage employers. In England, that number is 4,000. In Wales, the difference, really, is quite stark: we have just 120 companies—the most recent figures that I have here—who are registered as living wage companies. Now, one difference, certainly, between the situation in Wales and Scotland and England is that they have organisations funded in Scotland and England that go out there persuading and encouraging private sector companies to roll out the living wage, and showing them that it would be good for their businesses if they were to become living wage employers.
Is it not time that Welsh Government really invested? And by the way, it is of course welcome that contracts you directly enter into, through procurement in Wales, companies are encouraged in that way, and instructed, in fact, to pay workers the living wage. But what about all the other companies that are not engaged in direct contracts with the Welsh Government? Isn't it time that you invested in organisations such as Citizens UK in England, Poverty Alliance in Scotland to make sure that the message goes out there to companies in Wales that it's good for them, as well as for Welsh workers, that more of them pay the living wage?