City council staff to be guaranteed living wage

10:09am Tuesday 26th February 2013 in News

City council staff to be guaranteed living wage City council staff to be guaranteed living wage

WINCHESTER City Council will pay all its staff at least the new 'living wage'.

The Council already pays the minimum wage and will meet the £15k-£20k extra cost of introducing the living wage - £7.45 per hour - within its existing budgets.

Councillor Stephen Godfrey, the city's finance chief, said: “As a responsible employer we believe it is important to pay the living wage. We want staff to feel positive about working for Winchester City Council and we believe that the living wage will help us achieve that.

“The Council is a significant local employer and can set an important example for others. We believe that the investment will pay for itself by improving staff retention, productivity and customer service.”

The city council, which employs the equivalent of 435 fulltime staff, is one of the first local authorities to sign up for the living wage.

Comments(2)

wackyracer says...
12:56pm Tue 26 Feb 13

...and where will the money come from? Most of it from putting up rents for council tenants many of whom have had their wages frozen over the past few years. Council staff already have good conditions of employment, discounts, good pensions etc. and Housing staff can work from home if they wish, take plenty of 'sickies' and are not subject to performance practices as in the private sector. We're in a triple dip recession and WCC brags about paying higher wages

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cardinalfang says...
6:48pm Tue 26 Feb 13

More back to front thinking from the public sector, give people a pay rise and then assume they'll work harder. I think you'll find that you normally reward hard work, not hand over money and hope for the best. Still, it's not their money is it? The living wage is a idiotic idea anyway, a far better solution would be to take the low paid out of tax altogether rather than crippling business by forcing them to pay higher wages just because the government are going to take a big chunk of it.

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