Just kidding. But it is the amount that the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK are on strike for.
Here in South Africa it is more common to demand double digit pay rises. The Communication Workers Union (CWU), for example, is currently demanding a 15% pay rise.
The strikes are mainly viewed with annoyance or alarm by business owners and other people who don’t strike (find the Zapiro satirical cartoon of the CWU, for example). But perhaps the 2014 Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA)Food Price Barometer gives us food for thought.
Poor and working class households spend most of their money on food. Well, this is after other expenses – funerals, electricity, furniture repayments, transport and school fees … Money spent on food must adapt to what is left. The figure that statisticians bandy about is actually different to what SHOULD be spent on food, and actually hides “the food affordability crisis in South Africa“.
The Core staples measured in the Barometer include maize meal, rice, flour, bread, potatoes, sugar and oil. These are increasingly more expensive and unaffordable, and as the price increases the poor settle for cheaper brands.
Um, what happens when they can no longer afford the cheaper brands …?
