Responding to a report from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) showing that the number of Scots paid less than the real living wage has increased by 7,000 in the past year, Labour Economy spokesperson Jackie Baillie said:

“This expert analysis shows that hundreds of thousands of Scots are still waiting on a pay rise, and because of the SNP’s economic mismanagement the number is actually increasing. 

“It also underlines the total failure of the SNP’s flagship Business Pledge  scheme, which involves signing up for the living wage, with only a fraction of Scottish jobs covered.
 
“It is clear there is no future for Scotland as a low wage, low skill economy. We need a long term industrial strategy to create the high paying jobs of the future. In the short term we need a living wage guarantee in public contracts meaning that companies who rely on taxpayer funded contracts have to pay the living wage to their staff.