Khan makes announcement
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today announced a landmark increase in the London Living Wage, from £9.75 to £10.20 per hour – a 4.6 per cent rise and the first time the wage has been more than £10.
He also revealed that another 470 employers signed up to pay their staff the capital’s hourly rate over the last 12 months, bringing the total number of accredited businesses in London to 1,502. As a result, London now accounts for almost 42 per cent of businesses paying the Living Wage in the United Kingdom.
During Sadiq Khan’s mayoralty, the number of businesses paying the London Living Wage has increased by 50 per cent. Over the last year major companies and organisations including Lush, the National Gallery, Somerset House, the Southbank Centre, UBS and Societe Generale have become accredited as London Living Wage employers.
However, the Mayor is calling for more businesses to sign up to pay the London Living Wage to help tackle in-work poverty and the ethnic pay gap in London.
Nearly 60 per cent of Londoners living in poverty are in working households, compared to less than a third of Londoners twenty years ago.
The ethnic pay gap remains unacceptably high, with the median wage for white groups £16.23 per hour, compared to £13.46 per hour for all black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) groups. Moreover, double the number of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers are paid less than the London Living Wage compared to White British employees.
Next year the Mayor will be launching his Good Work Standard which, with fair pay and the London Living Wage at its heart, will support employers to adopt best practice and achieve high standards in areas of such asworkplace diversity, flexible working, health and well-being, skills development and ensuring employees’ voices are heard.
He will work with major employers from all sectors, especially those with high standards, to support businesses and other employers who would like to develop them.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I pledged to ensure the London Living Wage rises to beyond £10 and I am delighted that has been achieved. I am determined to make London a fairer and more equal city, and the news that more 1,500 businesses are paying the wage is a good step towards achieving that. But we need to go further – and for many more businesses and organisations to sign up.
“London is one of the most dynamic and prosperous economies in the world, but unfortunately this prosperity isn’t shared by all Londoners. In the capital today, more than two million people are struggling to make ends meet and the ethnic pay gap is shockingly and unacceptably large.
“I want to make sure that no one who goes to work every day should have to endure the indignity of poverty.
“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.
“The London Living Wage is a campaign which I am thrilled to be a part of and I wholeheartedly encourage more businesses across our great city to get involved.”
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