CECA Scotland have celebrated being a fully accredited Living Wage employer, along with 1600 other Scottish businesses, as the Living Wage Foundation announced an increase of the real living wage to £9.30 an hour.

Introduced to mark Living Wage Week, the new rate is independently calculated to reflect the increased cost of living and is £1.09 per hour more than the minimum wage (for over 25s).

Over 6,000 UK businesses currently pay the voluntary real Living Wage rate; over 1,600 of which are headquartered in Scotland.

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Since 2011 £183million in extra wages has gone into workers' pockets in Scotland, directly benefitting over 41,000 Scottish workers as a result of Living Wage accreditation.

New research by KPMG has found there are 380,000 jobs in the Scotland (or 17%) still paying less than the real Living Wage, lower than the 2019 UK average.

The Living Wage rates are the UK's only independently calculated wage rates based on what people need to live on. On average, a worker paid the real Living Wage of £9.30 will earn £2,000 more a year than someone earning the UK Government minimum of £8.21 an hour – enough to cover nine months of a typical family's food and drink bill.

More than 1,600 Scotland based Living Wage Employers have now voluntarily gone beyond the minimum to pay a real Living Wage.

The real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum.

(MH/JG)