| QUOTE (Living Wage Act) |
| Category: Social Justice Strength: Significant Description: The World Assembly, AWARE that some workers are paid so little that they can barely afford to eat; CONSIDERING this situation little better than slavery; DESIRING that all people should be afforded the luxury of doing more than merely surviving in exchange for full-time work; DEFINES the Bread Line as the cost of enough food and drink to keep a person and a dependent healthy for a week, plus one week's rent for an average two-person dwelling, plus the pro-rata weekly cost of such utilities as may be deemed appropriate, plus the pro-rata weekly cost of schooling for a dependent; REQUIRES that power and water supply be deemed appropriate utilities; SUGGESTS that an allowance be made for primary medical care where this is not free at the point of access; NOTES that the Bread Line is defined on an area-by-area basis, and sets no limits as to how any nation should define such areas save that they must lie wholly within the nation's boundaries; REQUIRES that the Bread Line be re-evaluated on at least an annual basis; CONSIDERS a person working on average 30 hours or more per week to be in full-time employment; REQUIRES that no individual in full-time employment may be paid the equivalent of a weekly wage of less than 25% over the Bread Line; EXEMPTS from this requirement workers in the voluntary sector, who donate their time and effort as they choose; DECLARES void any contract specifying a lesser wage, requiring that either that contract is revised to give the equivalent of a weekly wage of at least 25% over the Bread Line or that national redundancy laws be invoked; ACCEPTS that individuals may be paid in kind as well as cash, evaluating such payments for the purposes of this act as follows: * Food and drink is evaluated as the Bread Line food and drink assessment pro-rated to the proportion of weekly nutritional requirements that the payment provides; * Accommodation is evaluated as the Bread Line accommodation assessment; * Utilities incorporated into the Bread Line calculation are evaluated as the Bread Line assessment of that utility pro-rated to the proportion of a week for which that utility is available; * Educational provision is calculated as the Bread Line assessment of the cost of that education pro-rated to the proportion of standard weekly education for which the provision is available; * Other goods and services are evaluated as their average market value in the area over which the Bread Line is assessed; and URGES nations to ensure that their welfare systems provide at least the equivalent of a weekly wage of 20% over the Bread Line. |
