Andrew Dismore

You may be interesting in the below press release from the Mayor of London regarding his decision to raise the living wage to £10.20 perh hour:

 

*   More than 1,500 London businesses to pay all employees more than £10

an hour for first time

*   Number of London businesses paying the wage has increased by 50 per

cent since Sadiq became Mayor

*   BAME communities suffer worst from pay gap

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today announced a landmark increase in the

London Living Wage, from £9.75 to £10.20 per hour – a 4.6 per cent rise and

the first time the wage has been more than £10.

He also revealed that another 470 employers signed up to pay their staff the

capital’s hourly rate over the last 12 months, bringing the total number of

accredited businesses in London to 1,502. As a result, London now accounts

for almost 42 per cent of businesses paying the Living Wage in the United

Kingdom.

During Sadiq Khan’s mayoralty, the number of businesses paying the London

Living Wage has increased by 50 per cent. Over the last year major companies

and organisations including Lush, the National Gallery, Somerset House, the

Southbank Centre, UBS and Societe Generale have become accredited as London

Living Wage employers.

However, the Mayor is calling for more businesses to sign up to pay the

London Living Wage to help tackle in-work poverty and the ethnic pay gap in

London.

Nearly 60 per cent of Londoners living in poverty are in working households,

compared to less than a third of Londoners twenty years ago.

The ethnic pay gap remains unacceptably high, with the median wage for white

groups £16.23 per hour, compared to £13.46 per hour for all black, Asian,

and minority ethnic (BAME) groups. Moreover, double the number of

Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers are paid less than the London Living Wage

compared to White British employees.

Next year the Mayor will be launching his Good Work Standard which, with

fair pay and the London Living Wage at its heart, will support employers to

adopt best practice and achieve high standards in areas of such as workplace

diversity, flexible working, health and well-being, skills development and

ensuring employees’ voices are heard.

He will work with major employers from all sectors, especially those with

high standards, to support businesses and other employers who would like to

develop them.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I pledged to ensure the London

Living Wage rises to beyond £10 and I am delighted that has been achieved. I

am determined to make London a fairer and more equal city, and the news that

more 1,500 businesses are paying the wage is a good step towards achieving

that. But we need to go further – and for many more businesses and

organisations to sign up.

“London is one of the most dynamic and prosperous economies in the world,

but unfortunately this prosperity isn’t shared by all Londoners. In the

capital today, more than two million people are struggling to make ends meet

and the ethnic pay gap is shockingly and unacceptably large.

“ I want to make sure that no one who goes to work every day should have to

endure the indignity of poverty.

“Paying the London Living Wage is not only the action of a responsible

organisation, but a successful one too.  Many of the accredited employers I

speak to tell me of the increased productivity and reduced staff turnover

that they’ve experienced since signing up.

“The London Living Wage is a campaign which I am thrilled to be a part of

and I wholeheartedly encourage more businesses across our great city to get

involved.”

The Living Wage Foundation is responsible for calculating the wage rate

through the Living Wage Commission. The calculation, based on a basket of

goods used to measure the cost of a decent standard of living, gives the

wage rate needed for a worker in London to provide their families with the

essentials of life plus a cushion against unforeseen events.

Katherine Chapman Director of the Living Wage Foundation said: “The new

Living Wage rates announced today will bring relief for thousands of UK

workers being squeezed by stagnant wages and rising inflation. It’s thanks

to the leadership of over 3600 employers across the UK who are committed to

paying all their staff, including cleaners and security staff, a real Living

Wage.

“In-work poverty is today’s story. New figures out yesterday show that 5.5

million people are still paid less than the real Living Wage – it’s

fantastic that this year alone over a thousand more employers have chosen to

go beyond the legal minimum and pay a real Living Wage, putting fairness and

respect at the heart of their business.

“Great businesses know that, even during these tough times, not only is fair

pay the right thing to do but paying the real Living Wage brings big

benefits. Nine out of ten accredited Living Wage employers report real

benefits including improved retention, reputation, recruitment and staff

motivation.”

During his first year as Mayor, Sadiq insisted that all Greater London

Authority staff and subcontractors must be paid the London Living Wage.

He is also working with local authorities and encouraging them to follow the

lead of Brent, Ealing and Greenwich to offer business rate relief schemes

for accredited businesses.

Responding to the London Living Wage increase, Megan Dobney, from the Trades

Union Congress London region said: “The increase in the London Living Wage

will be welcomed by the tens of thousands of workers who benefit from it.

Far too many families in London are living in poverty because of the

enduring curse of low paid work.

“If London is truly to be a world class city then it must be a world class

place for all who work here, and that means fair pay for all workers.

“We support Sadiq Khan’s promise to ‘tackle low pay and to make London the

best place in the world to work’. The London Living Wage is a growing

success and our challenge is to get more employers to understand the

benefits it brings to their businesses.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

*   The London Living Wage has risen by 4.6 per cent from £9.75 to £10.20

*   There are now 1,503 London employers accredited, up from 1,033 the

previous year. This compares with just 27 employers who publicly backed the

Living Wage in 2008.

*   Over the past year there have been new living wage employers from

every sector including private sector companies in high street banking,

retail and energy providers.

*   The Living Wage Foundation supports both the London and National

Living Wage campaigns by providing ‘accreditation’ to those Living Wage

employers who want it.

*   The accreditation process is administered by the Foundation, which is

part of Citizens UK. ‘Accreditation’ entitles an employer to use the Living

Wage mark. In addition accredited employers undertake to meet announced

rises in the Living Wage within six months.

*   Ethnic pay statistics are from London’s Poverty Profile 2017

https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/publications/londons-poverty-profile-2017/

*   Sadiq announced the new rate for the London Living Wage at the offices

of Lush Cosmetics, who have paid the London Living Wage to staff since 2011

and have this year become a fully accredited employer across the whole of

the UK. Lush Cosmetics launched in 1995 and since then has grown to be a

leading international brand, employing 640 people in London alone. Their

starting wage is the London Living Wage.