Holyrood says no as Scottish Greens call for £7-per-hour minimum wage

The Scottish Parliament voted against Scottish Green Party calls for a £7-per-hour living wage across Scotland.
The SNP, Conservative and Lib Dem MSPs instead voted for a Lib Dem amendment which was less committal to the £7 level.
The £7 per-hour rate is the figure recommended by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and backed by the Poverty Alliance, who point out that one in five Scots working in the public sector do not receive this rate.
In this city there already exists a minimum wage – all be it a non-compulsory one. The Glasgow Living Wage was launched by Glasgow City Council in March 2009. It set a new guaranteed minimum standard of income for all council workers, set at £7 an hour.
A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council said: ‘The introduction of the living wage increased the basic salary of the lowest paid council workers by up to £1100 a year.
‘As well as the clear financial benefits for employees, research has shown that the introduction of a living wage in other parts of the UK has provided employees with more job satisfaction.
‘It is clear that improving rates of pay for low-paid workers can have a significant impact on the city’s efforts to tackle poverty and worklessness.’
Scottish Green Party Leader Patrick Harvie accused the politicians who voted against the motion at Holyrood of hypocrisy.
He said: ‘All the other parties at Holyrood spoke out today against inequality, but then SNP, Tory and Lib Dem MSPs voted against the Green call for a £7 an hour national minimum wage.
‘Far too many Scots still have to get by on wages below this basic level, including one in five of all public sector staff in Scotland, and it’s just not good enough.’