Today, we attended the Living Wage Celebration hosted by Everton Football Club.

It was brilliant to be there to hear the announcement of the new Real Living Wage, which is set to result in as many as 150,000 UK workers receiving a pay rise. From now on, the Real Living Wage rate will increase to £8.75 in the UK and £10.20 in London to reflect the real cost of living.

Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, kicked off the celebration by accepting an accreditation on behalf of the Liverpool CRCS to show they are a Real Living Wage employer. After campaigning last year for Merseyside and Halton to become a Real Living Wage zone, Steve said it was a proud moment. 

It was great to hear first-hand how being paid the real living wage allows you to do things you wouldn’t be able to do on the minimum wage. One attendee spoke about how she has been able to buy a caravan and travel the UK to spend more time with her family, something she would not have been able to do if she was on the Government minimum wage.

Average UK wages have increase by 2% over the last 12 months, while the rate of inflation is up by 2.7% over the same period (source ONS). This has resulted in the cost of living is becoming increasingly challenging. It is becoming increasingly difficult for many UK workers to use their wage to ‘live’, resulting in many cases of people being in ‘work poverty’. By paying the real living wage, it encourages staff retention, better recruitment and improves staff motivation which brings fantastic benefits to all companies that are Living Wage employers.

We are proud to be one of 3600 Living Wage employers in the UK. We believe in supporting social justice and by paying a living wage we can retain staff and attract the right staff by paying them a fair wage for a hard day’s work.  

Andrew Holroyd, commented on the morning, saying:

We became a Living Wage Employer as we recognised our responsibility to provide a fair wage to our employees. Having a workforce who are treated fairly helps us to provide a great service to our clients. It is a matter of some regret that we are one of only two law firms in the North West to think in this way. Hopefully others will soon follow our example as we know it makes business sense.