The Real Living Wage increased to £9.30 per hour.

Good news for those whose employers have signed up to the ‘real living wage’ scheme.

The Living Wage Foundation has pushed up the national minimum hourly rate by 30p to £9.30.

The real living wage was devised by charity the Living Wage Foundation. It argues the government’s National Living Wage is not high enough to meet workers’ needs and encourages employers to adopt to its more generous, independently calculated rate.

The National Living Wage is the legally binding hourly rate for workers aged 25 and over. It was set at £8.21 an hour in April 2019 and is reviewed every year just like the National Minimum Wage (for under 25s).

More than 210,000 workers in Britain will receive a pay rise as real living wage increases.

Businesses who have signed up to the voluntary scheme will lift their UK hourly rate by 30p to £9.30.

People living in London will see their hourly pay rise by 20p to £10.75.

This year, the Living Wage Foundation has accredited about 1,500 employers, taking the overall total to just under 6,000.

Employers that have joined the initiative include the FTSE 100 insurer Hiscox, Crystal Palace football club, Leeds Building Society, City airport in London and Newcastle University.

The scheme is separate from the statutory National Living Wage for workers aged 25 and above which currently stands at £8.21 an hour.

The Living Wage Foundation said its “real” pay rate – which applies to all employees over 18 – is calculated independently and is based on costs such as food, clothing and household bills.

The charity said the difference between its own living wage and the government minimum will be more than £2,000 a year nationally and almost £5,000 a year in London.

UK jobs paying less than the “real living wage” has fallen over the past year from 22% to 19%.

New research by accountancy firm KPMG suggests that the number of UK jobs paying less than the “real living wage” has fallen over the past year from 22% to 19%.

However, it said 5.2 million jobs pay below the “real” living rate.

The National Living Wage is a key campaign issue as the UK heads towards the general election on 12 December.

An independent report, commissioned by the former Chancellor Philip Hammond, concluded that raising the National Living Wage would have little impact on jobs.

Party competition over ‘National Living wage’.

The rise comes as the main political parties compete to offer higher minimum wages. 

Chancellor Sajid Javid said he would increase the minimum rate for workers over the age of 25 to £10.50 by 2024 and reduce the age level at which workers qualify to 21 by the same date.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has pledged to introduce £10 an hour as a minimum rate immediately, which he said would rise with living costs. McDonnell said it would mean “everybody over 16 years of age will be earning comfortably more than £10.50 an hour by 2024”.

At the weekend, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon accused the Tories of short-changing young people with a “discriminatory” minimum wage policy.

She said the SNP will demand an end to the “rip-off” of workers aged under 25.

Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation, said while it is “fantastic” there is so much focus on wages:

“We have always been working with businesses to take action now rather than waiting for legislation.”

“Good businesses knew the living wage “means happier, healthier and more motivated workers”.

Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation.

She welcomed announcements by Cardiff and Salford councils to build “living wage cities”, with Cardiff planning to double the number of workers receiving the real living wage to nearly 50,000.

She welcomed announcements by Cardiff and Salford councils to build “living wage cities”, with Cardiff planning to double the number of workers receiving the real living wage to nearly 50,000.

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