Leeds City Council announced major rate of pay increase

Starting salaries for staff in Leeds are set to increase to a minimum rate of £10.90 per hour to help ease cost-of-living concerns.

Due to be enforced in April this year, the local authority have announced the increase will bring the minimum full-time salary paid by the local authority up to £21,029 and mirrors the Living Wage Foundation minimum rate.  

The Living Wage Foundation is currently the only UK wage rate that is voluntarily paid by over 11,000 UK businesses who believe their staff deserve a wage which meets every-day needs – over 300,000 employees have received a pay rise as a result of the campaign.

In addition to full-time workers receiving a pay rise, the scheme announced by Leeds is also designed to help people on an apprenticeship, who are commonly known as starting on the lowest income. 

In April 2016 the government, inspired by the Living Wage Foundation, introduced a higher minimum wage for all staff over 25 called the ‘national living wage’. However, the system is not calculated on what employees need to live, it is based on a target to reach 66% of median earnings by 2024.

Under current forecasts, this means a rise of £10.50 per hour by 2024 and from 2021 was adjusted to include those over 23 years old.

At the beginning of the year, CV-Library is reporting that 75.1% of UK professionals have considered looking to change jobs because of rising costs and half of the people surveyed aged between 18 and 42 reported their entire monthly income was being spent on living costs.

When discussing the decision, Deputy Leader of Leeds City Council, Cllr Debra Coupar, stressed the importance of it with regards to the current rising costs.

Cllr Coupar said: ‘The cost-of-living crisis is hitting everyone, but the biggest impact is on the lowest paid. I am delighted that as a council we have committed to continue to pay the Living Wage Foundation Minimum Wage from April this year.

‘This increase will make a real difference to the lives of our lowest paid staff, and I hope will help to ease some of the pressures they are facing.

‘I am really pleased that apprentices within the local authority will also benefit from this increase as the national minimum of £5.28 per hour is simply nowhere near enough.

‘We are proud as a council to pay people the salary they deserve and one which enables them to better cope with increasing costs.’

In addition to the local authority trying to help boost people’s ability to keep up with the current cost-of-living, this winter Leeds City Council partnered with Zero Waste Leeds to help distribute as many second hand coats to locals as possible, with an aim of keeping people warm who couldn’t afford to turn on their heating.

Photo by Gary Butterfield