Employers that pay staff the Real Living Wage (RLW) will have to find an extra 10% after it was increased to £12 in the UK and £13.10 in London on Tuesday.
Providing workers with a salary that is independently calculated by think tank Resolution Foundation and is based on what is required for people to live on, the Living Wage Foundation has always offered a wage that is higher than the government’s national living wage.
Around 14,000 employers pay their staff the RLW, including half of the FTSE 100 and privately-owned household names like Ikea, Liverpool FC, Lush and Nationwide.
Some of the FTSE 350 companies which pay the RLW include:
- Barclays
- Admiral
- Burberry
- Watches of Switzerland
- Unilever
- BP
- AstraZeneca
- HSBC
- Diageo
Notably, the major supermarkets and a large proportion of leading retailer like Next and JD Sports don’t pay their workers the RLW.
Companies like Aviva and Abrdn have gone further than just paying the RLW and are now 100 Living Hours employers, guaranteeing staff a minimum of 16 hours of work a week.
Katherine Chapman, Living Wage Foundation director, said: “As inflation eases, we cannot forget that low-paid workers remain at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis. Low-paid workers continue to struggle with stubbornly high prices because they spend a larger share of their budget on food and energy.
“These new real Living Wage rates are a lifeline for the 460,000 workers who will get a pay rise.”