Britain is experiencing a growing problem of low and falling pay and precarisous employment conditions among ordinary workers. These issues cut across sectors including public services. More evidence reveals that reducing the value of wages for middle and lower income earners means greater economic and social fragility. Action to tackle these trends is therefore not only essential but increasingly unavoidable. This report, commissioned by the public services union Unison, proposes that nothing short of an inclusive set of policies capable of guiding the labour market is required; and that the public sector offers fertile ground for starting, and in some cases reinvigorating, a movement for progressive labour practices.