The idea behind a living wage is that people who work in our community should be able to live decently and raise their families here. This requires a wage and benefits package that takes into account the area-specific cost of living, as well as the basic expenses involved in supporting a family.

Although living wage standards do, by definition, vary by region, they are all considerably higher than the national minimum wage. This is because the minimum wage does not begin to meet the needs of working people or families anywhere in the country: in fact, it puts a parent with one child below the official poverty line.

A living wage aims to correct this by establishing, at a local level, a more reasonable minimum wage. The London living wage is formulated by the Greater London Assembly Low Pay Unit and is set by taking into account other forms of Government assistance and benefits for the low paid (see http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/economic_unit/workstreams/living-wage.jsp).

As SOAS students and staff well know, London is one of the most expensive cities in the world in which to live. Studies of the local cost of living, such as those conducted by the GLA and London Citizen, suggest a living wage minimum of £7.20 per hour plus benefits. Moreover, studies suggest that even this figure is inadequate to rent, let alone buy, a two-bedroom flat in the London area. Low paid workers at SOAS are increasingly pushed to the periphery of the city and often travel large distances to work in inner-London at great expense both in transport costs and time.

Many of the low paid support staff are paid indirectly by SOAS through contractors as a direct result of the university’s policy of outsourcing much of this work. Cleaners at SOAS, for example, are employed by Ocean Contract Cleaning Ltd and most survive on the national minimum wage, currently £5.35 per hour. Benefits such as sick pay and annual leave are set at the legal minimum and workers have no recognised trade union to act in their defence.

Because SOAS contractors’ pay so little, many employees are forced to work two and even three jobs - as many as 80 hours per week - and still struggle to support their families.

According to a report by London Citizens in partnership with UNISON, Queen Mary University Geography Department and others, 90% of the cleaners and hospitality workers interviewed were migrants. 94% of those pay tax and national insurance, while less than 15% claim any type of benefits. (See http://www.londoncitizens.org.uk/files/Making%20the%20City%20Work.pdf)

In fact, many workers at SOAS do live elsewhere travelling large distances into work each day. In some cases, a SOAS worker will spend a total of 3 hours commuting to and from work each day, because it's impossible to afford to live any closer. Best case scenario: a worker finds a better-paying job, or a job closer to home. The jobs at SOAS don't go away. SOAS will still hire cleaners and catering workers and security staff and pay them wages that leave them in poverty.

Yes. In a costing document released to the unions SOAS management admitted it would cost the School just one-half of one percent of the university's annual budget. Looked at another way, it is the equivalent of the pay and benefits package for our current Director and Registrar.

There is no reason to think so. To begin with, the jobs that underpaid workers perform on this campus are ones that need to be done: cleaning, catering, security and so on. SOAS cannot do without these workers without seriously impairing its own ability to function.

Moreover, as mentioned above, SOAS can easily bear the added costs of a living wage. Just as SOAS can choose to implement wage increases, it can simply choose not to cut staff in the process.

Absolutely! Protests last term forced SOAS management to put pressure on their contractors to clean up their act. SOAS management agreed to open discussions with the unions and have announced an Outsourced Contract Review which will look at the feasibility of implementing the London living wage and the future of outsourcing core services.

Similar threats of protests a few years ago led to SOAS being the first UK University to disinvest from the arms trade. The Justice for Cleaners campaign led by the Unite union recently forced Barclays to concede the London living wage for its low paid contract staff as part of its campaign to end poverty pay amongst cleaning staff in the City.

One big push this year and we could be in a position to change the lives of many low paid workers who are as essential in providing a high class education for students at SOAS as our lecturers and administrative staff. JOIN US! (email: livingwage@soas.ac.uk for more details or visit our website: http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/unison/slwc/)