I attended this event today at the invitation of the Oxford University Living Wage Campaign.  I must admit Living Wage is not really something I’d thought about before but the speeches from the panel I heard this evening were incredibly compelling.  There are aspects of the living wage that I’m slightly ashamed to say I had never really considered before.  The session felt a little bit like diversity training in that it completely moved me on from seeing a living wage as a burden on an employer to seeing it as a positive advantage, just as is paying proper attention to diversity by doing all you can to include as many people as possible.  It never really occurred to me that paying more money to poorer people is actually much better for the economy than paying it to richer people as the former will spend it locally whereas the latter may well squirrel it away in offshore tax avoidance schemes where it does nothing to benefit our economy .  There are the obvious morale, attendance, commitment and retention advantages of a living wage also.  If nothing else then to me paying a Living Wage is simply a matter of common decency and justice that all should be able to expect.

The event was held in the Exam Schools of Oxford University, and that’s quite ambitious as the rooms are not small.  The panel was of the highest quality and the event was extremely well-attended with over a hundred people there.  This just showed me how important people see this issue to be, particularly in the light of housing and the cost of living being so expensive in Oxford.  A member of Oxford City Council, Van Coulter, made an excellent speech about the need for a living wage and reminded us that Oxford has one of the highest cost of living to average income ratios in the whole country.  He said it’s like paying London prices on a West Midlands wage and I think he’s right!  Van also made the excellent point that if people are forced to live on very low wages then they make compromises like buying cheap, unhealthy food, that ultimately shorten their lifespans and of course make them less efficient employees.

It’s also great to hear about all the excellent work the Living Wage Campaign has been doing with Oxford University and its Colleges.  Some Colleges have already adopted a living wage and apparently discussions with the University are going well.  This pleases me as an employee of the University, although I must say not one who has any issue whatsoever with his own wages!  There were quite a few College bursars present as well as some college employees on lower wages and apparently some useful discussions were had after the main speaker event.

If you are interested in learning more about the Living Wage campaign the I recommend following @oxlivingwage on Twitter, emailing livingwage@ousu.org or if you want to focus on these issues during Lent 2012 from a Christian perspective then the Call to Change website gives more information about the Living Wage in the wider UK.

All said a first-class student-organised event about a massively important issue for Oxford that certainly got me thinking to an extent that not many things do!  What a far cry from the image students some East Oxford people seem to have that says they are “increasing to unbearable amounts already in this area and they do not need any further encouragement or welcoming into our community because they bring nothing positive” (See my previous blog post on this).