Real Living Wage rises to £9.90 an hour
Business / Mon 15th Nov 2021 at 09:34am
MORE than 300,000 people working for employers who have voluntarily signed up to the Real Living Wage are getting a pay boost of 40p to £9.90 an hour reports the BBC.
This is not to be confused with the compulsory National Living Wage, which is currently £8.91 an hour for anyone over the age of 23.
Real Living Wage employers in London will pay £11.05 an hour, a 20p rise.
Almost 9,000 employers throughout the country have signed up to the policy – 3,000 of them during the pandemic.
The latest employers to join include housebuilders Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon Homes, Fujitsu, food delivery company Getir and outsourcing firm Capita.
Companies already accredited include half of the FTSE 100 and big household names such as Everton Football Club, insurer Aviva, luxury goods brand Burberry and the Nationwide building society.
The recommended rate is intended to ensure all staff earn a wage that meets the real cost of living and covers everyday needs.
Latest research by the Living Wage Foundation shows that there are still 4.8 million jobs – 17.1% of all employees – still paying less than the Real Living Wage in the UK.
Northern Ireland had the highest proportion of jobs paying below the Living Wage at 21.3%, while south-east England had the lowest at 12.8%.
Workers from ethnic minority groups are also more likely to be low-paid, with 19.4% of these workers earning below the Living Wage, compared with 16.3% of white workers.
The Living Wage Foundation’s director, Katherine Chapman, said the new pay rates, which apply from Monday, would “provide hundreds of thousands of workers and their families with greater security and stability”.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme. she said: “It is still a pound, two pounds higher than the [national] minimum wage and that makes a huge difference. That means not having to worry about putting food on the table, or paying the bills at the end of the month.
“And we’ve seen record numbers of employers signing up this year because ultimately they want to do the right thing by their workers.”
mike
2021-11-15 09:41:15
but a huge number still think its ok to just pay the min wage of £8.91 and a lot of them are big companies, zero hour contracts saves them a lot of money as well, pure greed!!!!!!!
P.
2021-11-15 11:55:45
Minimum wage is believed to be the bare minimum. It is the worst thing to happen to workers. Employers love minimum wage because it is always lower than the actual value of the employee. Employees need to begin bargaining their true value. I know an IT engineer with numerous degrees who is only paid 28,000 a year. Way below what it should be. Disgusting. Mandatory minimum should and needs to be at least 13.00 an hour.
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