Council to pay £2 above minimum wage (From Oxford Mail)

Council to pay £2 above minimum wage

11:00am Monday 13th February 2012 in News By Rhianne Pope

Mark Latham cleaning the streets in Oxford

COMPANIES are being urged to raise wages for their lowest-paid staff, as Oxford City Council announced all its workers will be paid almost £2 above the minimum wage.

The council’s “living wage” is to be raised from £7.19 to £8.01 for all workers.

Councillors at the city executive board approved the proposals last week, which will cost the council an extra £8,700 a year.

Council deputy leader Ed Turner said: “We know Oxford is an increasingly expensive place to live in, so while the minimum wage is adequate in other parts of the country, it isn’t enough here.

“We want to improve this for all our staff, including the people who are working on contracts, like the people in our leisure centres.

“At the same time, we would like to set an example, promoting this living wage to other employers in the city.”

Mr Turner said the issue affected the way the council chose the suppliers and contractors it worked with.

He said: “In the same way we wouldn’t work with a timber company that was destroying the rainforest to supply wood, we couldn’t work with companies that weren’t paying their employees adequately.

“We want to encourage pay increases from the bottom up to remedy these problems.”

The national minimum wage rates are £6.08 for workers aged 21-plus and £4.98 for those aged between 18 and 20.

It is hoped it will benefit the lowest-paid groups of staff, including those employed in cleaning and refuse collection.

Oxford City Council’s Street Scene team leader Mark Latham said: “That wage is way over and above what you earn working for an agency, which is usually about £6.

“So I think for the work we do the wage is pretty good, when you consider it’s not a job which you need four years of training to do.”

But Laura Wilson from the Agnes Smith Advice Centre in Blackbird Leys said: “It’s a nice move but I’m not sure it will make much difference in the grand scheme of things.

“It probably won’t make a difference in the standard of living for someone who is already on a low income. The cost of living is rising at such a rate that people will still be struggling to pay their bills.”

Oxfordshire Chamber of Commerce president Nigel Wild said: “I applaud Oxford City Council for doing this.

“But I think businesses are having to cut their cloth accordingly at the moment and if they haven’t got the money, they can’t raise wages. Most people are taking the view that simply having a job is better than no job.”