11 January 2016
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Anti Austerity Alliance Councillor Mick Barry said this morning that the minimum wage must be increased to a living wage following the release of a new report which says that a majority of employees faced rent increases last year with only one in four feeling they could manage the increases on their current salaries.
The 2016 Abrivia Recruitment Salary and Employee Trends Survey surveyed 45,000 employees in 4000 companies and found that 60% had faced rent increases in 2015 with 22% having faced rent increases of more than 10%. Only one in four reported that they could manage the rent rise on their current salary.
At the same time that the Abrivia survey found that one employee in five expects to buy a home in 2016, myhome.ie today release a separate survey which predicts house prices in the state to rise by a further 5% this year with steeper house price increases outside of Dublin.
Cllr Mick Barry said this morning: “The minimum wage must be increased to a living wage. Instead of a national minimum wage of 9.15 euro an hour workers need a living wage of 12 euro an hour as a step towards 14 euro an hour. If workers are going to be able to afford to buy their own homes, if workers are going to be able to pay the rent, wage increases are necessary and a steep increase in the minimum wage is the place to start.”
