All council workers should be paid the Living Wage - £7.45 per hour and £8.55 in London – according to trade union, GMB.
The public sector union has launched a campaign for 280,000 low-paid council workers to be given the Living Wage. Council pay rates start at £6.30 per hour, 11p above the national minimum wage.
National secretary of GMB, Brian Strutton, said: ‘After years of pay freezes local government is now the lowest paid of any major sector of the economy and for 280,000 front line public servants to be paid less than a living wage is a disgrace.
‘It is also nonsensical that their pay has to be topped up through the benefit system when they could have the dignity of being paid fairly without having to rely on benefit at very little net additional cost to the public purse.’
Most councils in Scotland, and 27 in England, have already introduced or are committed to a living wage.
Read our in-depth feature on Living Wage, and how councils can overcome the barriers to its introduction, in the next issue of Local Government News. Click here to register for your free copy.
