City Bridge Foundation has urged more London employers to become accredited Living Wage Employers. The call comes as the Living Wage movement marks 25 years since it began in east London.
Around 200 employers, workers, campaigners and civic leaders met at Guildhall on Monday 9 November. The event, for London Living Wage Week, was organised by the Living Wage Foundation and Citizens UK. City Bridge Foundation’s Chair, Paul Martinelli, gave the opening welcome.
Work is no guarantee against poverty in London. According to Trust for London, around 1.16 million Londoners in poverty live in a working household.
Paul Martinelli, Chair of City Bridge Foundation, said:
“Twenty-five years ago, community organisers in east London asked a simple question. Why doesn’t a full day’s work pay enough to live on?
“The charities we fund see the answer every day. People hold down jobs and still fall behind on rent and bills. A job should be a way out of poverty. In London, too often it isn’t.
“The Living Wage shows what happens when employers, workers, community groups and funders fix a problem together. Thousands of Londoners have had a pay rise because of it.
“There is more to do. If you employ people in London, accreditation is the clearest way to show you pay a fair wage.”
City Bridge Foundation practises what it asks. The City of London Corporation, its trustee, has been an accredited Living Wage Employer since 2014. Since 2016, the Foundation has funded the charities it supports to pay the London Living Wage.
City Bridge Foundation is also working with partners to tackle in-work poverty across the capital. Making London Work for All, a London-wide partnership supported by City Bridge Foundation, Trust for London and the Mayor of London. Led by the Living Wage Foundation and Citizens UK, the campaign’s first phase doubled London’s Living Wage employers in four years.
The current phase aims to sign up 1,800 more London employers, giving 30,000 Londoners a pay rise. City Bridge Foundation’s £500,000 commitment was the first grant under its Standing with Londoners strategy.
Accreditation is a public commitment. Employers agree to pay the real Living Wage to their own staff and to regular contracted workers, such as cleaners and security staff. In London, that is the London Living Wage of £15.45 an hour.
