The Rowntree Legacy: Low Pay and a Liveable Wage

In the concluding months of the First World War Seebohm Rowntree was writing the introduction to his book The Human Needs of Labour: “I do not believe for a moment that in the future we shall allow millions of our fellow-countrymen, through no fault of their own, to pass through life ill-housed, ill-clothed, ill-fed, ill educated. But if their conditions are to be remedied, the present scale of wages for unskilled labourers must be materially raised.” He was advocating for a national minimum wage. Seebohm’s writing was hugely influential and he became an adviser to Prime Minister David Lloyd George and contributed to the Beveridge Report which led to the founding of the Welfare State following the Second World War. The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust has been committed to political reform from its inception and contributed to the climate of opinion that led to the formation of the Welfare State. Low Pay and the Liveable Wage are still the subject of lively political debate today.