{"id":16645,"date":"2018-11-05T15:09:33","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T15:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16645"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:57:53","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:57:53","slug":"real-living-wage-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16645","title":{"rendered":"Living Wage boost"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At least 180,000 people whose bosses are Living Wage employers will see a boost to their pay packets as the Living Wage Foundation increases its rate to \u00c2\u01419 an hour outside London and \u00c2\u014110.55 in the capital.<\/p>\n

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The \u00e2\u20ac\u0098real\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Living Wage is a rate set by the Foundation each year that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s calculated as the minimum needed to maintain a decent standard of living. Companies who sign up to be Living Wage employers pledge to pay all their staff at least the Living Wage, including workers who are subcontracted.<\/p>\n

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The Living Wage Foundation has said this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s increases to its rate are largely driven by higher transport costs, private rents and council tax hikes.<\/p>\n

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The number of Living Wage employers has risen every year and now stands at 4,700 in the UK, including over 1,500 in London.<\/p>\n

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The real Living Wage is not to be confused from the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Living Wage, a re-branding of the mandatory minimum wage which is now set at only \u00c2\u01417.83 an hour and has continued to lose its value as the cost of living soars.<\/p>\n

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Living Wage Foundation director Tess Lanning explained why paying the real Living Wage was so important.<\/p>\n

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“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,” she said.<\/p>\n

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“We want to see local councils, universities, football clubs, bus companies and the other major public and private sector employers in every city commit to become real living wage employers.”<\/p>\n

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Unite has long been a champion of the real Living Wage and has been successful in pressuring and negotiating with employers to sign up to be Living Wage companies.<\/p>\n

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Most recently, Unite notched up a victory in September<\/a> in its campaign to make London\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest social enterprise leisure services\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 provider Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) pay the London Living Wage (LLW) to those aged 18-to-20.<\/p>\n

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Following pressure from Unite, Waltham Forest council has agreed that staff working for GLL aged 18 to 20 will be paid the London Living Wage from October. This follows on from a victory over the summer when Tower Hamlets council brought forward an agreement with GLL to pay those aged 18-20 the LLW from this September backdated to April.<\/p>\n

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Airport staff at both Luton and Gatwick airports are now gearing up for strike action in their own fight to pressure their bosses to pay the Living Wage.<\/p>\n

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Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner urged more employers to sign up to the real Living Wage.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great news that more and more companies are signing up to be Living Wage employers and showing that they care about their workforce,” he said. “But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s remember that most bosses don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay up out of their own free will \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often only when workers and their unions take a stand and demand a Living Wage that employers listen.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith the latest increase in the real Living Wage, the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disgraceful minimum wage \u00e2\u20ac\u201c cynically rebranded the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098National Living Wage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is becoming further and further disconnected from the real cost of living.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOnly the Labour party \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with its pledge to introduce a \u00c2\u014110 an hour statutory minimum wage and revive sectoral collective bargaining \u00e2\u20ac\u201c working together with trade unions can ensure a decent standard of living for all people regardless of which industry they work in or where they live.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 180,000 people whose bosses are Living Wage employers will see a boost to their pay packets as the Living Wage Foundation increases its rate to \u00c2\u01419 an hour outside London and \u00c2\u014110.55 in the capital.   The \u00e2\u20ac\u0098real\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Living Wage is a rate set by the Foundation each year that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s calculated as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[23,536],"wps_subtitle":"Real Living Wage increases to \u00c2\u01419 an hour","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16645"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25738,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16645\/revisions\/25738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}