The level of the London Living Wage (LLW) is to increase by just under two per cent to £10.75 an hour following the Living Wage Foundation‘s latest annual calculation of the rate, which is paid voluntarily by over 1,750 accredited employers in the capital.
The new, increased, figure for the rest of the United Kingdom is a lower £9.30 an hour, reflecting the Foundation’s recognition of the capital’s higher cost of living. City Hall says the new LLW rate will mean a pay rise for approximately 60,000 Londoners, doubling the number benefiting since 2016.
The new London Living Wage rate, payable to all over-18s, is a significant £2.54 per hour higher than the government’s £8.21 statutory national minimum wage for over 25s, – which it now calls the National Living Wage – and its national minimum of £7.70 per hour for 21 to 25 year-olds. The Living Wage Foundation calls its own voluntarily-paid figures the “Real Living Wage“.
City Hall says newly-accredited LLW businesses in London include London City Airport and Crystal Palace Football Club, and that the capital is now home to the country’s “first Living Wage Building” – the Lambeth Council-owned International House in Brixton, managed by the 3Space company.
All organisations within the Greater London Authority Group, including Transport for London, the London Legacy Development Corporation, the Metropolitan Police Service and the London Fire Brigade, pay the LLW.
However, City Hall says almost 20 per cent of jobs in the capital do not pay London Living Wage rates. London Mayor Sadiq Khan told On London last week that he would like national government to give him the power to introduce statutory minimum pay levels for Londoners.
A 2013 study for think tank Centre for London found that minimum wage legislation could be amended to enable a higher rate for London to be set and that its implementation need not have adverse effects on the wider UK economy.
A report from the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies published in June found that London has the highest poverty rates in Britain.
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