Joseph Rowntree Foundation is to pay staff increased living wage

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is to pay its staff the living wage, which has increased today by 25p to £7.45 per hour outside of London.

The living wage is considered to be the amount of pay needed to provide an adequate standard of living, and is formulated by Loughborough University’s Centre for Research in Social Policy, which bases its calculations on data supplied by the JRF.

The JRF’s chief executive, Julia Unwin CBE, made the announcement following last week’s KPMG report that showed that five million UK workers (one in five) are paid less than the living wage.

The living wage, which has been backed by both Labour leader Ed Miliband and the London Mayor Boris Johnson, is significantly higher than the national minimum wage, currently set at £6.19 per hour.

New figures released today show that the Living Wage Campaign, launched by charity Citizens UK in 2001, has lifted 45,000 people out of working poverty and won over £200m of improved pay for low-income workers. In London, the living wage is set higher than the rest of the country at £8.55 per hour.

Julia Unwin made the announcement to increase staff pay at an event in York. She said: “A living wage is good for business, for the individual and for society. Consequently, it is entirely right that it enjoys cross-party political support as well as support from major employers.

“I am delighted to confirm that, as an employer, from 2013, we will pay a living wage to all of our colleagues, extending it to around 100 of our lowest paid who are carrying out important work as care assistants, cleaners and catering workers. I would urge more employers to make a commitment to paying a living wage.”

Will you be paying your workers the ‘Living Wage”? Is it affordable?

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