City of London Corporation response to the announcement of the new UK Living Wage hourly rate

Catherine McGuinness, Policy Chair at the City of London Corporation, which is an accredited Living Wage employer, said:

“Paying the Living Wage helps improve quality of life and gives people the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families.

“But there is still much more to be done. One in five people employed in London don’t earn a wage they can live on and we all have a responsibility to change this statistic.

“We want all firms to recognise that paying the Living Wage is not just the right thing to do, it’s good for their businesses too.”

ENDS

For background:

The City of London Corporation is a long-running supporter of the Living Wage Foundation. It has been an accredited Living Wage employer since 2014, meaning a significant increase in wages for some of its lowest-paid employees.And this year the City Corporation strengthened its own Living Wage policy by paying its own staff and its suppliers’ staff the new rate, with immediate effect, when the updated Living Wage is announced in November each year. This is opposed to paying staff the new rate from April the following year, which is the most common approach taken by employers – meaning annual increases in the rate reach people’s pay packets more quickly. The City Corporation already pays its interns, work experience placements over two weeks and apprentices working in the capital the London Living Wage as a minimum.

In February this year the City Corporation took over the London Underground with posters encouraging more firms to pay staff at least the London Living Wage of £10.55 per hour. The campaign celebrated businesses already paying the London Living Wage and encouraged firms not currently accredited to join them. The posters were displayed at nine of the capital’s busiest tube stations, including Liverpool Street, Euston, Victoria and Paddington. The campaign launched with an event at the Museum of London, had wide engagement on social media, extensive press coverage, ran newspaper advertising, and involved direct discussions with City businesses. The City of London Corporation won an Industry Champion Award for the campaign, at the Living Wage Champion Awards 2019, run by the Living Wage Foundation, after the two-week campaign reached over five million people across the capital.