Dundee To Become First Living Wage City In UK

6th March 2019

Employers have began planning to make Dundee the first "living wage city'' in the UK.

The plan involves increasing payment of the voluntary living wage of £9 an hour, which is more than £1 an hour above the statutory adult rate of £7.83.

Employers including the city council, DC Thomson and the local chamber of commerce have formulated the plan.

More than 50 employers in Dundee are already committed to paying their staff and subcontractors the living wage, covering a quarter of all workers in the city.

The Living Wage Foundation has launched the Making Living Wage Places scheme to recognise groups of local 'anchor' institutions which not only pay the living wage to their employers and contractors, but which also seek to use their power and influence to spread living wage accreditation through their local area.'

Scotland is making good progress in becoming a living wage nation, and punches well above its weight in terms of the proportion of people paid at least the living wage.

The Scottish Government previously launched the Scottish Business Pledge and many companies have signed up to that.

The Scottish Business Pledge is a voluntary commitment made by Scottish businesses to use modern business practices.

This includes:

paying the Living Wage

not using exploitative zero hours contracts

supporting progressive workforce engagement

investing in young people

making progress on diversity and gender balance

committing to an innovation programme

pursuing international business opportunities

playing an active role in the community

committing to prompt payment

See more at https://scottishbusinesspledge.scot/