Rayner: We'll make work pay for Scots

Labour minister shares her own experience of low-income hell

- CHRIS McCALL

ANGELA Rayner has spoken of her determination to deliver a pay rise for Scots families after sharing her own experience of lowpaid work.

The new Deputy Prime Minister, a former care worker, said: "For too many Scots, work is not providing for them." One of the first acts of the new Labour Government at Westminster was to expand the remit of the Low Pay Commission which advises on the National Minimum Wage and Living Wage - so it now considers the cost of living.

Rayner also instructed the commission to narrow the gap between the minimum wage rate for 18 to 20-year-olds and the National Living Wage, as part of a plan to create a single adult rate.

The UK Government also introduced new legislation last month which will ban "exploitative" zero-hour contracts, which allow employers to only pay staff when they need them.