<p>The Foundation Living Wage</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:11 pm on 5 July 2017.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:11, 5 July 2017

Well, Llywydd, I thought that Dawn Bowden made a very important point at the start of that supplementary question, when she pointed out that for many organisations it makes good business sense to pay wages of this sort, which result in them being able to recruit and retain staff. At the Finance Committee this morning, we talked briefly about social care as an example of exactly that phenomenon. The turnover of staff in social care can be up to 30 per cent on an annual basis, and yet we know that where there are local authorities and care companies who pay their staff and organise them on terms and conditions that make it attractive for people to take up those jobs, to stay in those jobs, to benefit from the training that is then available, that is a more successful business model for those companies and for those authorities than trying to pay at the bottom of the pay scale, and then having to cope with all the other costs of recruitment, retraining and having to employ temporary staff to cover where gaps in workforce have emerged. So, I think she made the case for the payment of the foundation living wage in terms that local authorities and employers can understand, and I’m very keen, myself, to make that case with them whenever I have that opportunity.

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