Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the publication of this Bill in the name of Deputy Bacik. I congratulate my colleagues for bringing forward this Bill and those who worked on it within our team on the Labour benches. It is worth reiterating what the Bill sets out to do. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State said the Government is not opposing it at Second Stage.

In Ireland, approximately 380,000 workers earn less than the officially accepted threshold of low pay, which is two thirds of median income. This is one of the highest proportions of workers on low pay, approximately one fifth, in the European Union or OECD. Women are more likely than men to be in a low paid job.

In June 2000, when the first national minimum wage rate was declared, it was set at a level slightly higher than two thirds of the median average income. Following the recommendations of the national minimum wage commission published in April 1998, the initial rate was €4.40, which was approximately 73% of the median hourly earnings of €6. Following the initial rate, however, the national minimum wage, or NMW as we call it, has failed to keep up with rises in median average incomes, falling to closer to 40% of median earnings.

As the Minister of State said, the programme for Government has committed to progress from the current national minimum wage to a living wage. It is important for us to explain for people who are listening to and watching these debates that there is a significant difference between the minimum wage and a living wage.

That has been well articulated by our colleagues. We want progress on this. We are now two years into this Government. The Low Pay Commission has furnished its report to the Minister and we would like greater urgency with regard to its publication. Whatever recommendations are in that report would give life to that living wage that we are all advocating for. Unlike the national minimum wage, which is not based on the cost of living, a living wage can be defined as the rate of pay that would enable full-time employed adults across the State to afford a minimum socially acceptable standard of living. It provides for needs, not wants. It is evidence-based and grounded in social consensus. That is the purpose of this Bill. It is worth articulating the views of those who are under severe pressure at the moment, that is, low-paid workers throughout Irish society, people like Linda, a young working parent in Cork, who contacted us to say:

A pay increase would mean that I would be able to afford the necessary maintenance my house is in desperate need of. At the moment with childcare being so expensive I don’t know if I can keep my job. My husband’s job is a low pay job and I don’t know what to do.

It feels like I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.

It is precisely people like Linda we are speaking for here. They are now in a position where they do not even know if they can maintain themselves in full-time employment. There is a cost to them in keeping their jobs. That is the irony and tragedy of the situation. It may, ironically, be more beneficial for somebody like Linda to move to a situation where the family is entirely dependent on the Department of Social Protection. It is for those people that we speak. I think the Minister of State is sympathetic to that, to be fair to him. He has said he is not going to oppose the Bill. This is an issue on which all of us in this House can unite. If we can all work together to bring about this living wage and have a meaningful impact for people like Linda and thousands of others like her, we will have done a good day's work.

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