- London Living Wage increases to £10.55
- London Stadium today becomes a Living Wage accredited employer
- Since January 2017, £94 million in extra wages has gone into Londoners’ pockets
- Mayor calls for more high-profile institutions to commit to the London Living Wage
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced that the London Living Wage will increase from £10.20 to £10.55 per hour – as he revealed that the London Stadium has become the latest high-profile employer to become accredited by the scheme.
Sadiq confirmed today that since January 2017, £94 million in extra wages has gone into Londoners’ pockets.
In the last 12 months, businesses including King’s College, Shelter and the world’s oldest international law firm Freshfields and have all become Living Wage accredited.
Announcing the new rate at the Barbican Centre today, Sadiq called on the city’s big employers in the public and private sectors to follow suit and to start paying their workforce the London Living Wage.
The Mayor also announced that, after he took over direct control of the London Stadium late last year, the stadium is now an accredited Living Wage employer.
The Mayor thanked the Stadium’s management team who have overseen the complex contract negotiations needed to make sure that all full time and sub-contracted staff – including cleaners, security and catering workers - at the Stadium will have received their pay rise by December, backdated to August 2018.
He is particularly keen for major sporting and cultural institutions to follow this example and sign up to the scheme and will be writing to many of them in the coming weeks encouraging them to do so.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am determined to make London a fairer and more equal city, so I’m proud to say that the London Stadium has joined more than businesses across the capital in becoming a Living Wage employer.
“Now I’m calling on all of our city’s employers – in the public and private sectors – to do the same and to start paying their workforce the London Living Wage. And I’m calling on our most influential institutions – from our universities, local authorities, and airports, to our football clubs, theatres and galleries – to help lead the way.
“More workplaces need to step up and fulfilling their obligations to our city and our society.
“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 so I wholeheartedly encourage more businesses across our great city to get involved.”
Speaking on behalf of E20 Stadium LLP, Lyn Garner, Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation, said:“We are very proud that the London Stadium is the largest venue to be Living Wage accredited in the UK and we very much hope that others will now follow suit.
“We are grateful to the Living Wage Foundation for working with us to tackle low pay and to achieve this important milestone.”
Living Wage Foundation Director, Tess Lanning, said: ”Today’s new London Living Wage rate will provide a boost for hundreds of thousands of workers throughout the capital. Responsible businesses know that the government minimum is not enough to live on.
“Employers that pay the real Living Wage enable their workers to live a life of dignity, supporting them to pay off debts and meet the pressures of rising bills.”
In his manifesto Sadiq pledged to work toward making London a Living Wage City. To achieve this, businesses must to support and encourage each other to do better. Nearly a fifth of all jobs in London pay less than the real Living Wage - around 749,000 jobs - showing that there’s still a lot more work to do.
Later this year the Mayor will also be launching his Good Work Standard to support employers in adopting best practice and achieving high standards in areas of such as workplace diversity, flexible working, health and well-being, skills development and ensuring employees’ voices are heard at all levels of their organisations.
Catherine McGuinness, Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation, said: “Today’s announcement is a step closer to ensuring all Londoners are paid a fair wage.
“We are proud to be an accredited Living Wage employer. It has meant significant increases in wages for some of our lowest-paid employees.
“Our staff, apprentices and suppliers are paid the Living Wage. And we’ve taken this one step further by ensuring even more of our contract staff are covered.
“All businesses can benefit from being a Living Wage employer. The City Corporation will run a campaign in early 2019 to encourage financial and professional services firms in the City to pay the London Living Wage.”
Sam Gurney, from the Trade Union Congress London region said: “This much needed increase in the London Living Wage will be welcomed by the tens of thousands of workers who benefit from it directly and by everyone else who wants to see a fairer London. The fact that hundreds of thousands of our fellow Londoners are still not receiving what should be the minimum in our city is a disgrace. Far too many families in London are trapped in poverty because, despite their hard work, they’re in jobs that don’t pay even a basic reasonable salary.
“We continue to support Sadiq Khan’s promise to ‘tackle low pay and to make London the best place in the world to work’. Our shared challenge remains getting employers to understand the benefits it brings to their businesses and their employees, and to call-out business models based on poverty pay.
Notes to editors
On match days and at major sporting events The London Stadium employs 2000- 2500 people, all of whom will now receive the London Living Wage.
The UK rate has increased by 25p from £8.75 to £9 with the London Living Wage rising by 35p an hour from £10.20 to £10.55 an hour. This is a 2.8% rise in the UK and 3.4% rise in London.
More than 55,000 Londoners will benefit directly from the London Living Wage rise.
The real Living Wage is an hourly rate of pay set independently and updated annually (not the UK government’s National Living Wage). It is calculated according to the basic cost of living in the UK, and employers choose to pay the Living Wage on a voluntary basis. According to the Living Wage Foundation, since 2001 the campaign has impacted over 180,000 employees and redistributed over £800m to some of the lowest paid workers in the UK.
The Living Wage rates are the only rates independently calculated based on what people need to live in the UK and London. The 2018 increases have been largely driven by higher transport costs, private rents and council tax feeding through to the basket of goods and services that underpin the rates.
The Mayor announced the increase to the London Living Wage at the Barbican, which is Living Wage accredited, and is owned and managed by the City of London Corporation. All City of London Corporation staff are paid the London Living Wage or above, and it recently announced that all contract workers delivering two or more hours work for the organisation will be paid at least the Living Wage.