London Living Wage

“The London Assembly welcomes Living Wage Week.

Pay and poverty is an increasingly critical issue in London, as average pay rates continue to fall in the capital. Office for National Statistics data shows that in 2013, average weekly pay was £613 compared to £700 in real-terms (adjusted for RPI) in 2009.  This fall in wages has fed the dramatic rise in poverty in this city. The most recent London Poverty Profile found that in-work poverty has increased in London over recent years while the number of jobs paying less than the London Living Wage has also increased sharply since 2007 in both total numbers (from 420,000 to 600,000) and as a proportion of all jobs in this city (from 13% to 17%). 

The Mayor has set a laudable target to make the London Living Wage the norm in London by 2020. However, the data shows that we are moving further away from realising this ambition. This Assembly believes the Mayor must make the London Living Wage a much bigger priority for this ambition to be achieved. Firstly, the Mayor should place more resources into his business engagement team to ensure that the benefits of paying the London Living Wage are communicated more effectively to firms operating in London. Should these improved efforts fail to deliver a rapid movement towards a situation where the London Living Wage is genuinely the norm in London, this Assembly believes the Mayor should make the case to the Government for introducing the London Living Wage in the capital on a statutory basis, with a higher minimum wage for London being introduced as an intermediary step.”