Mayor of London Boris Johnson is increasing the Living Wage for London to £7.45 per hour.
The new pay level is almost 35% higher than the national minimum wage set by Government which currently stands at £5.52 an hour for workers aged 22 years or over, falling to £4.60 for 18 to 21-year-olds and £3.40 for 16 to 17-year-olds.
The new figure will apply to all Greater London Authority Group staff and also to all new contracts as soon as possible.
Twenty-seven organisations, including the GLA Group, the Metropolitan Police Service, Barclays Bank have now signed up to pay their staff the London Living Wage. Ealing Council has committed to introducing the London Living Wage in key contracts from September.
Johnson said: “There is too much poverty and deprivation and one way I can keep an election promise to tackle it is to raise the London Living Wage and step up the campaign to persuade London employers to match my commitment to ensure all GLA Group employees and contractors receive at least £7.45 per hour.
“I want City Hall to lead by example by ensuring its staff can maintain a decent standard of living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Therefore I have made it clear to all parts of the organisation that I expect the Living Wage to be the basic standard.”
The Trades Union Congress have welcomed the move. Megan Dobney, regional secretary for the TUC in London said: “In challenging economic times low paid Londoners are struggling to meet their everyday living costs and in-work poverty remains an unacceptable fact for too many. We’re pleased that Boris Johnson has committed to the continued implementation of the policy throughout the GLA Group.”
In related news official figures from the Office of National Statistics shows that wage settlements are below Consumer Price Inflation as unemployment surges.
