London community organization Citizens UK's "focus on the wages paid by England's Premier League football clubs exposes a stark truth about what used to be called 'the people's game,'" according to David Conn of THE OBSERVER. Football clubs, "enjoying a commercial boom" that has delivered a '13-16 TV deal of £5.5B, pay top footballers £10M ($16.3M) a year and CEOs £2M ($3.3M) a year. Hundreds of "their staff have have to make do on the minimum wage:" £6.31 ($10.28) an hour for "over-21s," £5.03 ($8.19) for 18-20-year-olds; and £3.72 ($6.06) for under-18s. It is a "damning portrait of football." It is also a "more general indictment of a society in which endemic, grindingly low levels of pay, too little to live on with dignity, are actually set by the government, while vast individual wealth is idolised." Only Man City "has committed to paying its staff a living wage." Citizens UK "welcomes that commitment, and calls on Manchester City to go further, to set an example and commit to ensuring that its subcontracted staff" -- such as those working for the catering companies which serve up "major matchday profits to the football clubs -- are also paid a living wage" (THE OBSERVER, 12/14).
