Greater Manchester employers encouraged to pay real Living Wage

Businesses across Greater Manchester are being encouraged to pay their workers the real Living Wage as part of a push to become the UK’s first Living Wage City-region.

The Living Wage Foundation, the non-profit organisation that calculates the voluntary Living Wage, the minimum hourly pay needed to meet living costs, has launched a new Making Living Wage Places scheme to bring together employers in towns and cities across the country to help drive living wage accreditation. Earlier this year, Greater Manchester’s efforts at improving pay for workers across the city-region were recognised at the Living Wage Champion Awards 2022.

Greater Manchester currently has over 500 accredited Living Wage employers, paying staff a minimum of £10.90 per hour, significantly more than the government’s statutory minimum of £9.50. In Stockport however, there are fewer than accredited 50 living wage employers, including Stockport Homes, local charity Together Trust, and B Corp and schoolwear manufacturer One+All.

Donald Moore, Chair of Stockport based One+All explains the importance of paying the living wage in a blog post here.

Katherine Chapman, Director, Living Wage Foundation said: 

“The Living Wage Foundation’s Making Living Wage Places scheme recognises groups of major local employers such as universities, sports clubs and local authorities that not only pay the living wage to their employers and contractors, but also use their influence to spread Living Wage accreditation through their local area. This increases Living Wage jobs, providing more workers with a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.”