Winning a pay rise for key workers
Day in, day out key workers take care of us. And during the pandemic - they never stopped. All of our key workers need a pay rise.
Our objectives
The people that kept this country going during the pandemic are our key workers. Those working across the private and public sector in health and social care, education, wholesale and retail, food production and transport, and in our public services.
Yet, many are underpaid, undervalued and overrepresented in insecure work. TUC analysis as part of this campaign has revealed:
- 4 out of 10 key workers earn less than £10 ph, rising to 7 out of 10 care workers,
- One million children in key worker households live in poverty,
- NHS workers are up to £3,000 worse off even with the 3% pay offer.
Our asks of government are simple – give all key workers a pay rise. They can do this by:
- Ending the freeze on public service workers’ pay and giving all public service workers a decent pay rise.
- Raising the national minimum wage to £10 per hour immediately.
- Funding the public sector so that all outsourced workers are paid at least the real Living Wage and get parity with directly employed staff.
The government has a chance to put this right with the upcoming comprehensive spending review and Autumn Budget.