London cleaners now on £7.45 an hour
July 30th 2008 Mayor of London Boris Johnson is increasing the Living Wage for London to £7.45 per hour - almost 35 per cent higher than the national minimum wage. The previous Living Wage for London was £7.20 an hour.
The new figure will apply to all Greater London Authority Group staff and also to all new contracts as soon as possible.
Twenty-seven organisations, including the GLA Group, the Metropolitan Police Service, Barclays Bank have now signed up to pay their staff the London Living Wage. Ealing Council have committed to introducing the London Living Wage in key contracts from September.
"There is too much poverty and deprivation," said Johnson. "I want City Hall to lead by example by ensuring its staff can maintain a decent standard of living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Therefore I have made it clear to all parts of the organisation that I expect the Living Wage to be the basic standard."
"This is not only morally right but also makes good business sense contributing to better recruitment and retention of staff, higher productivity, and a more loyal workforce with high morale."
Unions have applauded his decision, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, flies in the face of government calls to employers not to hike wages in the face of spiralling inflation. Although official figures claim inflation is around 4.2 percent, commentators such as former Prime Minister John Major have claimed the figures are "extremely misleading" and that the real rate is closer to 10 per cent. More articles from Cleaning Matters News Desk: | 
