Member's statement: Real Living Wage: Care Sector
Member's statement by Mr Philip McGuigan on .
- MLA
- Mr Philip McGuigan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 2 June 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Real Living Wage: Care Sector
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4980652
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Last week, I attended a very useful engagement, which was organised by Living Wage NI and Advice NI, on making a real living wage a reality for those who work in our care sector. The real living wage must be the bare minimum for all workers, and Sinn Féin is committed to delivering that across this island. That can be seen in the Finance Minister, John O'Dowd, making the Civil Service a living wage employer as part of the latest pay deal, and in former Finance Minister Conor Murphy's ensuring that the living wage is now a requirement for firms that attain government contracts here in the North. Dr Caoimhe Archibald has sought to continue to make progress on improving the rights of workers, including their being paid the living wage, through the introduction of her 'good jobs' employment rights Bill. The living wage has a clear role to play in raising people's living standards. Evidence shows that fairly paid workers are more productive in their employment and that they and their families enjoy better levels of physical and mental health. I want to put on record my sincere thanks and genuine appreciation to all our care workers. The work that you do is invaluable, so, clearly, that value and appreciation must be matched by your pay and working conditions. Our care workers are the backbone of our health service, and a fair wage is crucial, not only to recognising the value of their work but to attracting more people into the care sector. The Health Minister must move swiftly to make the care sector a living wage sector. As a constituency MLA, one of the biggest issues brought to my office is that of families desperately trying to get appropriate care packages for their loved ones. As Sinn Féin's health spokesperson, I recognise that more domiciliary care staff are needed to ensure timely hospital discharges to relieve pressure on our hospital beds, hospital emergency departments and the Ambulance Service. A real living wage and proper career progression opportunities can only help to bring more people into the care profession and encourage those who are employed in that profession to stay there. That will benefit our care workers and improve our health service and, importantly, patient outcomes. If we value our health service, we must value the staff who make it function. Paying the real living wage to all our care workers is good, not just for those workers and their families but for our economy, our health service and society as a whole.
424 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.94).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.94 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.90 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.04 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.02 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.02 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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