Nov 19 2021 This week the Real Living Wage increases were announced.
The National Real Living Wage is set for £9.90 an hour in the UK and £11.05 an hour in London.
Oxford City Council sets its Living Wage at 95% of the London rate – that is £10.50 an hour.
Those working a 37 hour work week would get a weekly wage of £388.5 or a yearly wage of £20,202. This compares with a legal minimum wage (NLW for over 23 year olds) of £9.50 an hour from April 2022.
Over a year those receiving the Oxford Living Wage on a 37 hour work week will be £1924 better off* than if they were on the legal minimum.
At a UK level £4.8 million workers (one in six) are paid less than the real living wage.
The council lists some 45 local organisations paying the Oxford living wage.
This pay graph below from the Financial Times shows that the living wage is now a growing movement affecting the lives of about a third of a million workers.
“Clearly the council is to be congratulated on its work with employers – what is less encouraging is the non involvement of local unions who will be key to monitoring the rollout and will be able to use this as a base for future negotiations. Strengthened engagement with local campaigners is also key to maintaining this social movement.”
The Living Wage campaign is supporting the initiative to discuss vaccination. We know that COVID has had a big impact on working class communities who typically live in denser housing, have fewer opportunities to work from home and are frequently employed in the ‘Gig economy’ with no job security or sick pay.
PUBLIC MEETING: FIXING HEALTH INEQUALITIES Why do people in working class communities die young? Why has COVID hit these workers and their families so hard? Are we victims or can we organise now for a better future? https://www.health.org.uk/…/Health%20Equity%20in…