The new real Living Wage rate for Wales of £9.90 p/h was announced by the First Minister on 15th November. C3SC is a long-standing accredited Living Wage employer and was proud to play a key role in Cardiff being recognised as a Living Wage City in 2019.
There are now over 160 accredited Living Wage employers in Cardiff, employing 64,000 workers. Almost 8,000 people have been uplifted to the real Living Wage as a result of accreditation. There are now 56 accredited third sector organisations in Cardiff.
If you want to find out more about the benefits of being a Living Wage employer and how to accredit, then please visit www.livingwage.wales. The Living Wage Places section of the website contains details of Cardiff Council’s SME Accreditation Support scheme which will cover the accreditation fees for Cardiff based SMEs for 3 years. To read more about the Living Wage Foundation’s work in the third sector, click here.
Real Living Wage and Social Care
Rolling out the real Living Wage to the social care sector was one of the Welsh Government’s top 6 pledges. Ministers have now received a report from the Social Care Fair Work Forum on pay and T&Cs across the sector. The Welsh Government will bring forward their proposals as part of the budget announcement on 20th Dec. Their stated aim is to start rolling out the real Living Wage across the social care sector in Wales from April 2022.
So what can you do as an accredited employer?
- Share images from the digital comms pack across social media [Making cardiff a living wage city Digital assets – st david’s day – Living Wage Wales] and use #LivingWageCardiff
- Use the email signature below
- Share your own messages about what accreditation means for you and your employees
- Tell other organisations you work with about the support available and the difference between the real Living Wage and national Living Wage (please see below)
- Let us know if there is anything you need in terms of information and additional support
The Living Wage rates and the ‘National Living Wage’ – know the difference
Unlike the Government minimum wage (‘National Living Wage’ for over 23s – £8.91 rising to £9.50 in April) the real Living Wage is the only wage rate independently calculated based on rising living costs – including fuel, energy, rent and food. The real Living Wage is paid to all workers over the age of 18.
A full-time worker earning the real Living Wage would earn £1,930 a year more than a worker earning the current government minimum (NLW). For a worker today that’s the equivalent of 7 months of food bills and more than 5 months’ rent based on average household spending in the UK. Even on next April’s higher NLW rate of £9.50, a full-time worker on the real Living Wage would earn £780 more.
