Voluntary Living Wage rise to boost 150,000 pay packets

The Living Wage Foundation has announced the rate is to rise by 30p an hour to £8.75. For those living in London, the rate will rise by 45p to £10.20 an hour. This represents a 3.6% rise in the UK and a 4.6% rise in London.

The Voluntary Living Wage rates are independently calculated, based on the real cost of living in the UK and London. The 2017 increases have been largely driven by higher inflation feeding through to the basket of goods and services that underpin the rates, with rising private rents and transport costs also having an impact.

Around 3,600 firms are signed up to the scheme, including Ikea and Google. It is separate from the government’s compulsory National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage (NLW).

The announcements come after new research published by KPMG showed that 5.5 million people across the UK are still paid less than the Voluntary Living Wage, which represents one in five workers, or 21% of the UK workforce.