Voluntary living wage to rise by 40p an hour
03/11/2015
The voluntary living wage in the UK is set to rise by 40p from £7.85 to £8.25 per hour.
The UK's voluntary living wage is an informal benchmark for the minimum amount workers should be paid. It is not legally enforceable, and is higher than the legal minimum wage in the UK which stands at £6.70 an hour.
More than 2,000 business with over 70,000 workers have signed up to the scheme so far, and will now have six months to increase their minimum pay from £7.85 an hour to £8.25 an hour.
The increase comes after a report on Sunday from accountancy firm KPMG showed that almost six million workers in the UK are paid less than the living wage. Young people, women and part time workers were most likely to be underpaid.
Sarah Vero, director of the Living Wage Foundation said:
"Today we are celebrating those 2,000 responsible businesses that are voluntarily paying the living wage to their staff.
"These employers are not waiting for government to tell them what to do. Their actions are helping to end the injustice that is in-work poverty in the UK now,"
In the last budget George Osborne announced a new compulsory “National Living Wage” that will come into force from April 2016. This will ensure employers pay workers aged 25 and over £7.20 an hour.
Need financial advice?
If you have any personal finance questions related to this news article, then please contact our financial advisers. You can get in touch by asking a question online, calling us on 0800 092 1245, or by arranging a visit.
Share this..
Related stories
OECD confident on UK economy
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has today released a report suggesting that the UK economy will outperform fellow G7 members in the third quarter of 2010. This will be a welcome relief for the UK government which is currently under major pressure regarding proposed benefits and public-sector investment cuts at a time when many in the UK are struggling to make ends...
Read MoreBank unveils rights issue plans
Barclays is to sell £4.5 billion of new shares in order to improve its balance sheet.The bank revealed today that overseas investors would take up the bulk of the stock offer, known in the industry as a "rights issue".According to the bank's chief executive, John Varley, the extra revenue created by the sale would allow Barclays to offset losses from the credit crunch and acquire new businesses i...
Read MoreIs Tesco using its loyalty card scheme to prop up trading?
Jonathan Pritchard, a retail analyst at Oriel Securities, has today opened up a potentially controversial debate regarding Tesco and current trading. Aside from the fact that recent industry sales figures placed Tesco towards the bottom of the pack over the last few weeks, the company has today announced a doubling of loyalty points for members of the company's loyalty scheme which will cost the g...
Read MorePolitical leaders agree to general election TV debates
In a sign that the UK political arena is beginning to reflect the US political scene more and more, it has been revealed that Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have all agreed to participate in three live TV debates ahead of the general election. Despite the fact that Gordon Brown has refused point blank in the past to become involved in live TV debates with his major competitors, many be...
Read MoreDo not forget the threat of swine flu!
While the UK press would appear to have forgotten about the issue of swine flu, after a reduction in new cases in the summer, there are signs that the virus is back again and could cause massive problems over the winter time. Many people forget that traditional influenza is more commonplace in the winter period, something which will be reflected in the ever increasing number of swine flu cases.