Spring brings good news for Scotland’s workers

The National Living Wage has risen by 6.7% from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour this month

This month, the Labour Government’s increase to the minimum wage comes into effect, putting more money in the pockets of hundreds of thousands of the lowest-paid Scots. On Tuesday, the National Living Wage rose by 6.7 per cent from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour. For a full-time worker, that’s worth £1400 a year. Meanwhile, the minimum wage rates for those under 20 have also increased significantly, while the Apprentice Rate has the largest increase of 18 per cent, from £6.40 to £7.55 per hour. We promised more money in people’s pockets and we are determined to deliver that. This well-deserved pay rise for Scotland’s workers is a landmark moment in delivering our Plan for Change. It will boost living standards and drive economic growth. And its impact will be widely felt with up to 200,000 people set to benefit from the increase.

At the same time we are taking determined action to deliver the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. The Employment Rights Bill will ban fire and rehire, end exploitative zero-hours contracts, and make parental leave a “day one” right for employees. Taken together, these changes mean that Scotland’s workers will not only be better paid, but that they will also be more secure at work which is good for businesses too. After the welfare reforms announced last month, we’re investing £1.25 billion in supporting people back into work, and the above changes mean that there will be secure, well-paid employment for people to go into. We will continue to do everything we can to help more people into work, while always supporting those who can’t work and will never be able to.

This April also brings good news for pensioners. Thanks to the Government’s ironclad commitment to the Triple Lock, pensioners across Edinburgh, Scotland and the whole United Kingdom will see their living standards protected, with the state pension rising by 4.1 per cent this month, meaning the average pensioner will be approximately £470 a year better off, and £1700 over the parliament. And let’s be clear, despite what some of the opposition parties say, the era of Conservative-SNP austerity is over. The Spring Statement confirmed that day-to-day spending on public services will rise by 1.2 per cent a year in real terms over the next four years – that’s more money for public services and on top of the huge investments made at the October budget.

This represents a clear turning of the page on the austerity years. In England, you can already see the benefits, with a sustained reduction in NHS waiting lists and funding made available to fix an extra seven million potholes. In Scotland, however, the SNP has failed to fully grasp the transformational opportunities offered by the additional £4.9bn provided to them by Labour. Where is their determination to bring down NHS waiting lists, reverse the widening attainment gap between the richest and poorest schools and fix our broken roads? Many organisations are still being given devastating cuts from the Scottish Government despite record funding. The Labour Government is delivering for workers, pensioners and Scotland. These changes will make a real difference in people’s lives and will secure living standards and public services in the years to come.

Ian Murray is MP for Edinburgh South and Secretary of State for Scotland