THIS week is Living Wage Week – a time for all of us to reflect on what we’re doing to tackle low pay and help build a fairer society.

Although the introduction of the minimum wage almost 20 years ago was hugely welcome, it isn’t sufficient to provide a decent standard of living – that’s why the Living Wage was created.

It’s calculated independently and set by the Living Wage Foundation and the Poverty Alliance.

And I’m delighted that just this week, they’ve announced a 40p increase in the Living Wage to £8.25 an hour.

There has been real progress in Scotland in recent years in rolling out the Living Wage.

Back in 2011, the Scottish Government became the first government in the UK to introduce the living wage across the public sector where we control the pay bill – directly benefitting around 3,000 workers, and earlier this year we became a fully accredited living wage employer.

We’ve also taken steps to ensure that public bodies consider fair work practices such as paying a living wage before they award public sector contracts.

The latest figures show that more than 80 per cent of employees in Scotland are paid at least the living wage – a higher proportion of the workforce than any other nation in the UK – and there are now more than 370 Scottish-based living wage-accredited employers.

This is very encouraging progress, but I want to go even further – that’s why I set an ambitious target for 500 accredited living wage employers by March next year.

The Scottish Government is working with the Poverty Alliance to help employers get involved.

Crucially—and this gets to the heart of why we are developing a partnership approach with Scotland’s business community —my message to business is that it should pay the living wage not because Government says so, but because it is good for business, motivates staff, increases staff retention and increases productivity.

I’m delighted that many businesses the length and breadth of the country – across all sectors – have got involved.

I’m glad that there is a clear determination in Scotland to improve the incomes of the lowest paid – but as we’ve seen over the last few weeks, the same sadly can’t be said of the UK Government.

Because for all that we’re doing in Scotland to improve uptake of the Living Wage, the Tories are undermining this with their deeply damaging plans to cut tax credits.

Under what George Osborne proposed, it’s estimated that a quarter of a million working households in Scotland face an average cut to their tax credits of £1500 a year.

Just to stress, these are working households – and by definition, those with the lowest incomes.

To add insult to injury – and completely summing up the Tories’ callous attitude – George Osborne thought Christmas would be the best time to notify families of exactly how much they’d be losing in April.

Deep down, I think the Tories know these plans are morally indefensible – that’s why they’ve tried to sneak them through with as little scrutiny as possible.

Tax credit cuts were not in the Tory election manifesto.

In fact, David Cameron specifically promised during the election campaign not to cut them.

And then George Osborne tried to force these through the House of Commons.

So it’s little surprise that there has been such a chorus of condemnation, with even some Tory backbenchers calling on George Osborne to think again – and I’m glad that he has said he will listen to concerns.

We now wait to hear how he will respond to last week's vote in the House of Lords.

But let us be clear, nothing short of Westminster completely abandoning these tax credit cuts will be acceptable - and we should not let up in the pressure for that to happen.

If George Osborne really wants to reduce the tax credit bill, the best way to do it is to increase wages – so that fewer people need tax credits in the first place.

Although he announced the so-called ‘national living wage’ in his summer budget, this was simply a modest enhancement of his so called “National Minimum Wage” – which of course is far lower than the actual living wage, and disgracefully discriminates against the under 25s.

The Tory record is in stark contrast to the progress we are making on the Living Wage in Scotland, and as we mark Living Wage week, I reaffirm my personal commitment to support working families in Scotland.

It’s time that the UK Government did the same.