North East Mayor Kim McGuinness has urged employers to embrace the real living wage as part of the region’s fight against child poverty and low pay.
Speaking at a Living Wage Week event in North Shields, the mayor welcomed the new living wage rates, which will provide 9,500 low paid workers a pay rise by May 2025.
The mayor called on public sector employers, schools and colleges to lead by example by paying the living wage.
She also set out an ambition to make the North East a ‘Living Wage Region’, citing Sunderland City Council and Newcastle City Council as examples of living wage employers.
‘Put simply, there is a moral imperative to make the North East a living wage region,’ she said.
‘Obviously the Combined Authority I lead is fully behind the Living Wage goal. We pay the Living Wage, our new organisation will be accredited as such, and we work with our providers as much as possible to encourage them to as well.
‘But we know we have to go further, working with the Living Wage Foundation to bring households out of hardship.
‘The public sector obviously has a role to play in setting an example. That’s why I’m proud to back the call for our region’s schools and colleges to sign up to the Living Wage campaign.’
