If you work for an employer who has voluntary signed up for the real Living Wage are set for a 2.8% pay rise this week.
The Real Living Wage is different to the National Living wage. The real Living Wage is for employer that want to pay their employees money that will help them pay their bills. Unlike the minimum wage and national living wage, the real Living Wage is calculated based on everyday needs and what people need in order to pay the cost of living.
The real Living Wage has now gone up to £9.00 across the UK and £10.55 in London. This only applies if you are 18 and older, it is a higher price in London due to the price of living there is a lot higher than other places in the UK. There are three main things calculated in the wage are food, clothes and housing prices.
There are around 4,700 employers across the UK that are signed up to the agreement, they include large companies such as IKEA, Aviva, Nationwide Building Society and Google. In total there are around 180,000 employees that will qualify for the pay rise.
If you are signed up to this agreement it is not just your employees that need to be paid this amount it is sub-contractors as well.
The real Living Wage created by the charity Living Wage Foundation, it argues that the government’s National Living Wage is not high enough to meet workers’ needs and encourages employers to be more generous.
“Employers that pay the real Living Wage enable their workers to live a life of dignity, supporting them to pay off debts and meet the pressures of rising bills,” said Living Wage Foundation director Tess Lanning.
5.75 million workers earn less than the living wage which has increased by 1.28 million over five years.
