Shropshire Star

Telford & Wrekin Council leader supports call for increase in wages

A council leader has said he would support an increase in the minimum wage as he spoke of his authority’s attempts to narrow the gap between the area’s highest and lowest earners.

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Councillor Shaun Davies

Councillor Shaun Davies, Labour leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, was speaking after it was revealed top earners in the borough are paid an average of £18,900 more a year than their lower-paid counterparts.

The Malinslee and Dawley Bank councillor said the council had been trying to invest to drive up the level of pay in the borough.

He said: “The borough has traditionally had a much stronger manufacturing base than many other areas and this tends to have a higher proportion of lower paid jobs.

“However, the council’s strategy has been to try to drive up workforce skills to equip people for higher-paid employment as well as attracting higher end businesses to the borough that will typically provide better paid jobs.

“Indeed recent success such as winning the MoD fulfilment centre at Donnington, retaining and attracting high tech employers such as Magna to the borough is evidence that this strategy is paying off.”

Increase

The Telford figures showed that the borough’s top earners were paid an average £704 per week – the equivalent of £36,610 per year.

For lower earners, average pay was just £340 per week, or £17,680 per year.

Councillor Davies said that he would like to see measures that encourage firms to increase their minimum wage.

He said: “I would support increasing the minimum wage and introducing support and incentives for business to do so. In Telford we are unlike many towns where thanks to a business-winning and supporting council we are seeing record private sector investment.

“We do however have a large number of public sector workers or workers, for example, who work in care have seen a decade of pay cuts in real terms. Surely the end of austerity – proclaimed by this government but not matched by actions will give the pay rise that workers deserve.”