Pay boost for some London workers as voluntary real living wage goes up

Passengers wearing face masks on the Jubilee Line in London, as workers are being encouraged to return to their offices, with a Government PR blitz commencing this week reminding people about the efforts taken to make workplaces "Covid-secure".
Workers travelling through London by Tube

The voluntary real living wage is to increase to £10.85 an hour in London and £9.50 across the rest of the UK, giving a pay rise for more than 80,000 Londoners.

The new rates, announced by the Living Wage Foundation, are an increase of 10p in the capital and 20p elsewhere, and will be paid by almost 7,000 employers nationally.

More than 800 employers have accredited with the foundation since the start of the virus crisis, including Tate and Lyle, Network Rail, and the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon.

The foundation said since its rates were launched in 2011, more than £1.3 billion in extra wages has gone to workers and families.

The voluntary rate is now 78p an hour more than the Government minimum wage for over 25-year-olds and the London living wage is £2.13 an hour higher.

A full-time worker paid the new £9.50 real living wage will receive more than £1,500 in additional wages a year compared with the current Government minimum, said the foundation.

New research by the Living Wage Foundation estimated that 5.5 million jobs – one in five of the total – pay less than the real living wage.