Living Wage Week 2025: The Difference It Makes
Living Wage Week is the annual celebration of the Living Wage movement. This year the theme of the celebration is “The Difference It Makes” to highlight how a real living wage can positively effect businesses and the lives of their employees.
The Living Wage Foundation are at the heart of fairer, better work. Their aim is to bring employers, employees, and communities, together across the UK to shape an employment system that works for everyone. The Living Wage Movement started in 2001, in Bethnal Green, London, when community members, churches, and other local institutions came together to identify the issue of low pay, causing many people to be forced into working two jobs just to get by. They wanted a system that would allow them to put food on the table by working just one job, with a fair wage, giving them more time to spend with their family and more time for their own wellbeing.
What does the Living Wage Movement do?
So, what does the Living Wage Movement actually do, and why are we celebrating it?
This article focuses on Living Wage Week, but The Living Wage Movement offer multiple employer accreditations that employers can voluntarily join to support their employees. These are:
Ø Living Wage Employer, who pay the independently calculated real Living Wage rates every year to all their staff.
Ø Living Hours Employer, who commit to providing all staff with secure working hours and predictable shit patterns to avoid manipulative scheduling practices like shift changes without notice, favouritism in shift assignments, guilting people into working overtime and much more.
Ø Living Pension Employer, who commit to adopting a Living Pension savings target so that employees don’t face poverty in retirement.
Ø They also offer a Service Provider Recognition Scheme and a Living Wage Funder Scheme.
You can find out more about these by clicking the hyperlinks provided.
The next question you may be asking is, what is the current Real Living Wage for 2025? As of 22nd October 22nd, the Living Wage is £13.45 across the UK with Living Wage for London being £14.80. The Real Living Wage is different from the government’s minimum wage and national living wage in a number of ways. The Real Living Wage is the only wage rate based on the actual cost of living, which is why the Real Living Wage for London is higher. The Real Living Wage is also the only one that is independently calculated rather than being negotiated by businesses or being calculated based on median earnings. For more information on the differences between UK Wage Rates you can see the graphic below.
The Real Living Wage is calculated by Resolution Foundation based on the price of core goods and services that people in the UK believe the be necessary to meet everyday needs. This is done via a three step process. Firstly they base it off of the minimum income standard, which is a piece of research done by the Center of Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University. This research consults the public by using focus groups of people from a variety of background to determine what goes in to an average basket of goods to provide a minimum acceptable standard of living, including things like childcare, facilities, and school uniforms etc. The next thing they do is price up everything in the average basket using prices directly from shops and other sources like transport providers and councils. Finally, the Resolution Foundation calculate an hourly wage weighted according to the incidence of different household types and taking into account tax and benefits.
The Independent Living Wage Commission then use the information provided by Resolution to further calculate a Living Wage that ensures workers can keep up with rising costs of living. The Living Wage Commission is made up of a variety of accredited employers from various industries from civil society including unions and experts on low pay. The purpose of the commission is to provide a space for transparent decision-making, free from political influence where they can make decisions on how to incorporate policy changes and new sources of data that affect how much money workers take home.
All together this process makes for a robust and independent calculation of the Real Living Wage.
The Difference It Makes
Research from The Living Wage Foundation highlights the position that the UK’s 4.5 million workers who are paid less than the Real Living Wage are in. It shows that over half of low-paid parents have been forced to turn to food banks, 59% of low-paid workers skip meals regularly, were unable to heat their homes, fell behind on bills, or took out a pay-day loan to cover essentials in the past year because of their level of pay. This also means that low-paid workers have little to no financial buffer in the case of emergencies or increases in day-to-day costs, with 1 in 4 people having no savings at all. In the case of an unexpected but necessary cost many low-paid workers can be sent into a downward spiral that effects their wellbeing, quality of life, and relationships. 65% of low-paid workers said that they believe being paid the Real Living Wage would positively affect their overall quality of life.
A survey of Living Wage Employers has also shown the positive impacts that a Real Living Wage has on people and businesses. The statistics are as follows:
Ø 66% said it has helped them differentiate from competitors.
Ø 87% said it has enhanced their reputation as an employer.
Ø 62% said it has improved recruitment of Living Wage Employees.
Ø 64% said it has helped improve relations between staff and managers.
Ø 60% said it has improved retention of Living Wage Employees.
The positive effects of The Real Living Wage have also been seen in Ladderstore’s diverse team with a variety of home situations that could add pressure on finances, with improvements seen in employee wellbeing, employee relationships, and employee retention. Our Managing Director, Gareth Monger, says the following on our commitment to a Real Living Wage:
“For Ladderstore, the decision to adopt the Real Living Wage was a natural extension of our core values. Our desire to do the best possible job, for our customers and, crucially, for the dedicated people who run our operations is key to us.”
Conclusion
To conclude, The Real Living Wage is a fair salary for employees that has been calculated based on the actual cost of living in the UK, which allows employees to keep up with an increasing cost of living and giving them more opportunity to spend on their own wellbeing and home life. This ultimately helps the Living Wage Employers too through enhanced reputation, better recruitment, and improved employee relations.
To find out more about The Living Wage Foundation, or if you are interested in joining Ladderstore and 16,000+ other organisations in becoming a Living Wage Employer, you can visit https://www.livingwage.org.uk