In the week of Equal Pay Day new figures reveal women in the South West and Bridgwater and West Somerset Constituency are earning 19.6% less per hour than men.
Equal Pay Day, is the 4th November, it is the day women effectively are working for free because they are still paid less than men and the pay gap is still rising.
Labour have pledged to take action to deliver equal pay by requiring companies with more than 250 workers will to publish their hourly pay gap in their annual report. For the first time employees will be able to see if discrimination exists and whether all the top jobs are still dominated by men.
Cllr Mick Lerry said: “Equal pay is long overdue. Under David Cameron and Nick Clegg the pay gap is back on the rise after years of progress, as families are struggling with rising prices and the cost of living. A Labour Government will take action by asking employers to publish their pay gap.”
Cllr Mick Lerry said: “Labour will support women and their families”
• An £8 minimum wage under Labour will give 3.9 million low paid women a pay rise.
• 25 hours free childcare for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds will support more mums who want to go back to work but can’t afford it – and that’s on top of Tax-Free Childcare.
• Most zero-hours contract jobs are done by women, making budgeting and childcare arrangements impossible. If you’ve been working regular hours on a zero-hours contract, you will have a right to a regular contract under Labour.
• Women-led small businesses contribute £70 billion to our economy. We will back more women to start their own businesses by cutting business rates in 2015 and freeze them again in 2016 for small businesses rather than going ahead with the Government’s corporation tax cut for the largest firms.
• We’ll scrap the hated bedroom tax, which according to the Government is hitting 400,000 women.
• We’ll support thousands of young women back to work, with a real paid job or training for all those under 25 out of work for more than a year.
• Labour will provide a real paid job for women 25 and over who’ve been out of work for more than two years too.
• We will provide a guarantee to parents that they will have access to Breakfast and Afterschool clubs when children are in Primary School to help them juggle work and family life.
• We will freeze energy bills until 2017 while we reform the market to help all families struggling with energy bills that have risen by £300 since the election.
Cllr Mick Lerry, leader of the labour Group on Sedgemoor District Council
Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Bridgwater and West Somerset.
Mobile: 07775905080
Email: michael.lerry@btinternet.com
These policies are vital and necessary to an enlightened future under Labour. The right wing dominated media will never give fair coverage to what the Labour Party proposes because they know and can never allow to be broadcast that they are fair and sensible policies for so many of the disenfranchised and detached. The Press and the Sky dominated news outlets will play on a fear of the ‘other’, they will divide and confuse,the tactic of UKIP and the Murdoch,Dacre dominated juggernaut. We who care for a fairer more integrated and caring society must do everything possible to ensure these messages of hope for a better UK are given as wide a platform as possible. Policies transcend personality politics, nobody is voting for Simon Cowell to be PM!!!