Ed Miliband’s offer to help employers to meet the cost of paying the living wage is the chance for Cambridge employers to make Cambridge a Living Wage City, says Cambridge Labour Parliamentary Candidate Daniel Zeichner. Mr Zeichner will attend the speech tomorrow when the Labour Leader marks Living Wage week by offering a tax-break to employers who become accredited Living Wage employers.

Addressing students at King’s College ten days ago, Mr Zeichner re-iterated his call for major Cambridge employers in particular such as the universities and Microsoft to step-up to the challenge:

“Over the last few years we’ve had some success – we’ve persuaded both the City Council and some colleges to commit to paying a Living Wage, but even now we find that the Lib Dem City Council is failing to pay out-sourced staff the Living Wage. The same is true of most colleges in the University and out-sourced staff at Anglia Ruskin University, while the Conservative led County Council has almost a thousand below the living wage. The private sector is arguably worse, with super-rich Microsoft continuing to use state support to subsidise low pay. Ed Miliband’s announcement tomorrow will put the issue at the heart of Labour’s election campaign, and in Cambridge I want us to be ambitious and transform Cambridge into a Living Wage City.”