A national living wage should be introduced to ensure every person in society enjoys a decent life, the Nationalist Party has said. 

PN MPs Adrian Delia and Clyde Puli along with election candidate Graziella Galea, said a new pay rate would help to tackle poverty issues.

They did not give any detail about how much people should be paid under the proposal announced in a news conference on Thursday.

The national minimum wage for full time employees over the age of 18 is currently ​€​​179.33​ per week.

In his first conference since being ousted as party leader, Delia said the PN was proposing the introduction of a social pact between the government, society and stakeholders.  

Puli said education was especially important in helping to eradicate poverty. He criticised the government for failing to provide long-term plans during the pandemic. He said the country needed “a minister on the ball and not a minister in a bubble”. 

His remark was in reference to the government’s reliance on the bubble system aimed at preventing interaction between children in school. 

Meanwhile, Galea said that the number of people in poverty continues to grow as the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. 

“Poverty is real and it exists. People’s struggles grew during the pandemic,” Galea said. 

On Wednesday, the PN called on the government to set up a Poverty Watch Unit to support more than 82,000 people who are at risk of poverty in Malta.