A country’s people are its greatest asset and it is vital that everyone in Scotland has the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Well rewarded and sustained employment is the best route out of poverty and to tackle inequality.

The actions outlined in Chapter 3 are designed to improve job opportunities and long-term economic resilience. With independence, we will focus on creating better work opportunities, with the aim of creating maximum employment for the entire workforce for the long-term success of Scotland’s economy.

Source: Scotland's Future, Scottish Government, November 2013.

Nothing will change as a result of independence. Employers based in the rest of the UK, or further afield, will be able to continue operating in Scotland, and people employed by them will not notice any difference. Today, around 16 per cent of Scotland’s private sector employees work for enterprises that are owned outside the UK.

Source: Scotland's Future, Scottish Government, November 2013.

The minimum wage has failed to increase in line with inflation in almost a decade. In every single year since the recession of 2008 the minimum wage has failed to keep up with the cost of living. If it had, some of the lowest paid Scots would be earning the equivalent of £675 more.

We plan that the minimum wage will rise at least in line with inflation.

Source: Scotland's Future, Scottish Government, November 2013.

The current Scottish Government fully supports the Living Wage campaign and its principle of encouraging employers to reward their staff fairly. We have led by example by ensuring all staff covered by the public sector pay policy are paid the Scottish Living Wage. This covers the 180,000 people in Scotland working for central government, its agencies and the NHS

This is part of the Scottish Government’s “social wage” – the contract between the people of Scotland and their Government. Our commitment to support the Scottish Living Wage for the duration of this Parliament is a decisive, long-term commitment to those on the lowest incomes. However, over 400,000 people in Scotland are working for less than the living wage and the majority of these are women.

A priority for action in an independent Scotland for the current Scottish Government would be to fund the Poverty Alliance to deliver a Living Wage Accreditation Scheme to promote the living wage and increase the number of private companies that pay it to make decent pay the norm in our country. We will continue to support and promote the living wage if Scotland becomes independent.

Source: Scotland's Future, Scottish Government, November 2013.

The view of the Scottish Government is that in order to build a fairer and more prosperous Scotland we need to combine employment law that protects the rights of employees with a regulatory regime that encourages companies to grow and create jobs.

A partnership approach to addressing labour market challenges is important. The Scottish Government has already, within the devolved settlement, adopted a strong social partnership approach, working with the voluntary sector, unions, employer associations and employers directly. We will continue that approach after independence, for example by ensuring that there is high quality, readily available childcare supporting parents to find sustained employment and the use of active labour market policies to get people into good quality, sustainable work. This is particularly important for supporting young people into the labour market.

Source: Scotland's Future, Scottish Government, November 2013.

The laws that are in place immediately before independence would remain in place on independence. After that, decisions on specific laws, including in relation to employment, will be made by the Parliament and Government of an independent Scotland.

Source: Scotland's Future, Scottish Government, November 2013.

While each element of employment regulation has individual impacts, taken together as a system, they need to balance the twin objectives of protecting the rights of employees and encouraging companies to grow and create good quality jobs. The current Scottish Government would reverse recent changes introduced at Westminster which reduce key aspects of workers’ rights. For example on independence we will restore a 90 days consultation period for redundancies affecting 100 or more employees.

Source: Scotland's Future, Scottish Government, November 2013.