About the Fair Pay Network
Paid work is undoubtedly a factor in ensuring that many individuals and their families remain free from poverty, but far too many jobs are low paid, part-time and insecure.
For individuals who receive low pay, work often doesn't pay nearly enough. For these individuals the threat of poverty is very real and life can be very hard.
61% of British children living below the poverty line in Britain live in households where at least one adult is in work. Incredibly, 1.7 million poor children live in working households, compared with 1.1 million poor children living in workless households.i
The introduction of a national minimum wage has not solved the problems associated with low pay. Under-payment of the NMW by rogue employers is increasing just as resources to enforce it are decreasing in real terms.
What does the Fair Pay Network do?
The Fair Pay Network is a national, broad identity coalition dedicated to leading the fight against the endemic levels of low-paid work and the increasing prevalence of in-work poverty that blight Britain’s social and economic landscape.
We believe that fair pay levels are a right, not a privilege and that no one who works should live in poverty. To this end we work to shape a country in which both the incidence and social and economic costs to the public of low-paid work and working poverty are sharply reduced.
Our objectives are:
- To raise awareness of the comparatively high incidence of low-paid work in the UK Labour Market and the associated steady rise in in-work poverty;
- To work proactively to ensure that the issue of work and pay sits at the heart of national policy debates concerning poverty;
- To build a strong working network of organisations and activists committed to raising awareness of the blight of low-paid work and working poverty and working towards their reduction;
- To provide available resources and support to national, regional and local campaigns for fair pay from tackling national minimum wage violations to living wage initiatives.
We will achieve these objectives by:
- Conducting research - under the rubric of the network or by supporting the work of stakeholders or individual member organisations – which sheds light into the endemic levels of low-paid work and in-work poverty in Britain and the groups affected;
- Acting as a hub and an information-sharing resource for members and other stakeholders by helping to share and disseminate policy, campaign and media initiatives across our networks;
- Communicating successfully across a range of media platforms - new and old - to ensure that we are the first point of call for media enquiries about issues relating to low-pay and in-work poverty;
- Acting as a source of information, advice, and, where possible, resources for national, regional and local campaigns for fair pay.
