Sales associates selling to a customer at a store register.
Posted on by Victoria Rosenthal

Lewisham Council will give local companies a rent discount of up to £6,000 if they register for the Living Wage programme between April 2020 and March 2021. 

The council made the announcement during its joint Living Wage Week celebration with the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark on November 10. They aim to incentivise local businesses to take advantage of the benefits of paying workers the London Living Wage.

The real Living Wage is an hourly rate for workers that matches the rising cost of living in London and cities outside of London. It is higher than the government-approved National Minimum Wage and increases annually.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan calls the effort “a critical issue”, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. “As we move down the bumpy road to economic and social recovery, one of the critical issues we must focus on is ensuring that everyone receives a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.”

Lewisham Council will provide the rental discount on non-domestic properties like shops and offices on a first-come-first-served basis and will charge a small fee. The discount a business will receive depends on the type of organisation and the number of workers it employs. 

Lewisham council, the first accredited UK Living Wage council, offered the discount as part of its goal to double its Lewisham Living Wage employers. Councillor Joe Dromey said that the council has almost reached its goal with 81 Living Wage employers in the borough.

The Living Wage Foundation, a Citizens UK initiative, increased the real Living Wage to £10.85 in London and £9.50 in cities outside of London for over 250,000 workers during the annual Living Wage Week event. The event held from November 9-13 celebrates companies already registered in the programme and encourages others to join. 

London’s real Living Wage is £2.13 higher than the city’s National Minimum Wage for workers who are 25 years old and over after its increase by 10 pence. Meanwhile, the Living Wage in cities outside of London is 78 pence higher than the government’s hourly rate following its 20-pence increase. 

The National Minimum Wage hourly rates increase every April.

Objectors warn of dangers in boosting minimum wage

While many politicians and businesses advocate increasing the living wage, Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) opposes it during a recession.

CPS urged ministers to table plans of a National Living Wage hike, especially for workers under 25, on November 15 because it will cost younger workers job opportunities. 

CPS researcher and data analyst Jethro Elsden said: “Going ahead with the current plans will harm the very people it is designed to help.”

Adopting the Living Wage Foundation’s recommendations will hit the industries most affected by the pandemic, like retail and hospitality, the hardest, a CPS report suggested. It will discourage businesses from creating new jobs while motivating them to discriminate against young workers. 

Furthermore, the organisation states that an increase will incur heavier costs for businesses struggling during the lockdown and for the state at a minimum of £2.4 billion. 

However, the Living Wage Foundation revealed that low-paid Living Wage workers earned close to £200 million in extra wages since the start of the first nationwide lockdown.

More than 800 employers have registered with the Living Wage Foundation since the pandemic’s start, including the All England Lawn Tennis Club and Capital One. They joined a network of about 7,000 major Living Wage accredited companies and small businesses, which includes IKEA and Queen Mary, University of London. 

Feature Image Credit: Christiann Koepke/Unsplash