North East Mayor Kim McGuinness has urged employers to embrace the real Living Wage, as part of the region’s fight against child poverty and low pay.
Speaking at a Living Wage Week event in North Shields, the Mayor welcomed the new Living Wage rates, which will provide 9,500 low paid workers a pay rise by May 2025.
The Mayor called on public sector employers, schools and colleges to lead by example and pay the Living Wage.
She set out an ambition to make the North East a ‘Living Wage Region’, building on work by Sunderland City Council and Newcastle City Council. Both councils have been key supporters of their Living Wage City action groups, working with major employers and civic institutions to drive forward the Living Wage in their cities.
It comes ahead of a major child poverty summit in November convened by the Mayor and North East Combined Authority, which will bring the region’s employers, education institutions, housing providers, health and education professionals and charities together as part of drive to tackle child poverty and create opportunity for families in the region.
Speaking at St Cuthbert's RC Church in North Shields, North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said:
“Put simply, there is a moral imperative to make the North East a living wage region. Obviously the Combined Authority I lead is fully behind the Living Wage goal. We pay the Living Wage, our new organisation will be accredited as such, and we work with our providers as much as possible to encourage them to as well.
“But we know we have to go further, working with the Living Wage Foundation to bring households out of hardship.
“The public sector obviously has a role to play in setting an example. That’s why I’m proud to back the call for our region’s schools and colleges to sign up to the Living Wage campaign.
“When we set out to end child poverty, we can’t overlook the support staff, the cleaners and those who serve our children's dinners all play a role in providing the educational spaces that create opportunity.
“And of course, many of those workers will be parents themselves, looking at their bank balance and wishing there was more to go around. We’ll find stories like that in public sector organisations all across the region. These are institutions that are committed to a better North East, that just need to go that little bit further internally to help get us there.”
The North East has made significant progress in the last few years in tackling in-work poverty, but as a region, still lags behind the rest of the country in relation to Living Wage accredited employers. Across the North East Combined Authority area there are just over 300 accredited Living Wage Employers with around 9,500 workers receiving a pay rise.
David Van der Velde, North East Programme Manager for the Living Wage Foundation said:
“The Living Wage Foundation has been campaigning to address low pay and precarious work for more than a decade. The North East region, more than any other needs this change so that all our workers feel valued. We look forward to working alongside the Combined Authority and with leaders from across business, public sector and civil society, so that our businesses, families and communities thrive and so that we can enhance the social and economic resilience of our region.”
Employers can find out more about the Living Wage and get involved by visiting: https://bit.ly/m/LWNE