News: Jason Kitcat on the Living Wage Campaign

Brighton & Hove City Council leader Jason Kitcat on the Living Wage Campaign

A quarter of the UK’s Living Wage employers are in Brighton & Hove. The Living Wage is a rate of pay that means people are able to live where they work. The rate is set by the Living Wage Foundation, who examine the costs of living such as rent, energy and food.

Campaigners in Brighton & Hove have been arguing for the living wage for many years. We took forward their work by immediately introducing the living wage for council staff as soon as we were elected, and setting up a Living Wage Commission to look at how a living wage might be adopted across the city.

The Chamber of Commerce has since led on the campaign on behalf of the council, and now over a hundred employers in the city have voluntarily signed up to pay their staff at least £7.45 an hour. These include businesses large and small as well as public and community organisations. This great success of the Brighton & Hove Living Wage Campaign is the only business-led one in the country, a real testament to our successful joint work with businesses in the city.

The reality is that we all bear the costs of low wages, since the government effectively subsidises them through the welfare system. Where people aren’t paid enough to live, benefits like housing benefit help them make ends meet.

Recent research found that every worker who is paid the living wage saves the government an average of £232 in benefits and raises an extra £445 in income tax. But it’s good for business too, as staff members are more likely to stay at an organisation, work better, and morale is higher.

By opting into paying a living wage, local employers are showing that it’s possible to tackle inequality despite difficult economic hardship. Together we are sending a clear message that everyone should earn enough to cover the cost of living.