Decent pay gives us healthy, productive workers
The writer is director of the Living Wage Foundation
The link between poverty and health inequalities was established more than 10 years ago by the Marmot Review. The evidence was clear that low incomes are associated with worse outcomes in virtually every aspect of health and wellbeing — including life expectancy.
Whether through low pay or insecure hours, people struggle to afford the basics for good health — like decent food and a warm home — and face the constant stress of working multiple jobs, while worrying about paying their bills. This all takes its toll on mental health and family and community life.
Children who live in poverty also have worse health outcomes. They are more likely to have been born prematurely and underweight, to suffer chronic diseases such as asthma, and to have greater mortality rates in early and later life. Child poverty is on the rise — and 75 per cent of children who are growing up in poverty have at least one working parent.
But employers can also quantify the benefits of the living wage. Chris Smallwood, managing director of living wage-accredited Anchor Removals, says the number of working days his business lost to staff off sick fell from 131 to just 23 within a year of living wage accreditation, dropping again to 11 in the year before the pandemic. Attributing that change to the positive impact of higher wages on the health and wellbeing of his staff, Smallwood estimates living wage accreditation has saved his company £18,000 a year.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Katherine Chapman
