One in seven employees across the UK now work for an accredited living wage employer, including Ikea, Oxfam, Lush and Linklaters. The latest addition is Uniqlo, a popular high street retail brand.
“We all need a wage that covers life’s essentials, and the real Living Wage is the only UK wage rate independently calculated based solely on what is needed to cover rising living costs,” said Katherine Chapman, executive director of the Living Wage Foundation.
“The new rates announced today will make a massive difference to workers and their families, helping them to better cope with the costs of rent, bills, food and other essentials, and to live with stability and security.
It remains a “tough time” for low-paid workers, she added.
More than one in five people in the UK (21%) were in poverty in 2022/23 – 14.3 million people. Of these, 8.1 million were working-age adults.
There are currently three million children in working households living in poverty, up from 2.1 million in 2010.
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“It is 20 years and counting since we last saw a prolonged period of falling poverty,” the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned in their UK Poverty 2025 report.
The LWF’s own research suggests 42% of Britain’s 3.7 million low paid workers have less than £10 left each week after covering essential expenses. More than a third (39%) have used a food bank in the past year and 32% have skipped meals for financial reasons.
However, some people think that it doesn’t go far enough. Last year, now-leader of the Green Party Zack Polanski of England and Wales said that it’s a “step in the right direction”.
“We always need to be having two parallel conversations with any policy area, but particularly around poverty,” he told us. “The first is what needs to happen right now, today, to make sure people can meet their basic needs. For example, to get off the streets overnight. Or to pay for essentials. The [real] Living Wage falls in this category.
“But then I think we have to have another conversation, which is about long term holistic change. When people are suffering, any alleviation of that is a positive direction. But we shouldn’t keep using plasters. We do need big, transformational, holistic change.”
However, for those workers receiving a pay increase today, it is doubtless welcome.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
“Today’s rise is great news for me and my family and I’m so glad I work for an employer who pays the real Living Wage,” said Adrian Mayo, production packing operative at food manufacturer Love Joes.
“I spent years in low paid jobs, desperate to move out of my parents’ house and into my own place. Not only are we now settled in a lovely home, the extra money the real Living Wage provides means I can afford to treat my family now and then too. We live a happy life without having to worry about money.”
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Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
