East Lothian Council achieves Living Wage accreditation

East Lothian Council has achieved Living Wage accreditation to reflect its commitment to fair work and reducing in-work poverty for its own staff and contractors it uses. The announcement came during Living Wage Week 2024. 

The Living Wage Foundation offers accreditation to employers who go further than the government minimum wage to ensure that wages reflect the cost of living. The Living Wage rates are calculated by the Resolution Foundation annually based on an analysis of the wage that employees need to earn to afford a decent standard of living. This includes housing, childcare, transport and heating costs. Organisations must pay all directly employed staff the real living wage and make sure that regularly contracted employees receive the rate during the hours they work for the council. 

The real Living Wage rose from £12 per hour to £12.60 per hour on 23 October and accredited employers have six months to implement the rate. The council currently pays £12.56 and will implement the real Living Wage by May 2025. In comparison, the hourly national minimum wage is £11.44 (due to rise to £12.21 from 1 April 2025 following last week’s budget announcement). 

East Lothian Council Leader Councillor Norman Hampshire said: “Reducing poverty and inequality is a key focus in our council plan. The real living wage reflects the costs for the basics that we all need and deserve. It cannot be right that, in this day and age, people find themselves in work but also in poverty because their wages haven’t kept pace with the cost of living. It aims to tackle this situation by offering a fair wage for fair work.” 

As well as committing to pay its own staff and contractors the real Living Wage, it is also using its position as a major purchaser of goods and services to benefit the wider economy. The authority spends approximately £140 million every year on goods, services and works, which represents a substantial opportunity to deliver additional social, environmental and economic benefits to East Lothian through its procurement processes. This includes checking whether accredited suppliers are already an accredited living wage employers of it they would commit to paying the real living wage to their employees during the lifetime of their council contract. 

Councillor Hampshire added: “While the real Living Wage undoubtedly benefits council staff who already receive it as a minimum, we are using our position as a major consumer of services in East Lothian to ensure these benefits are felt in other workplaces too. We want contractors or contract workers undertaking roles on council projects or on behalf of the council, including care staff, to also receive the real Living Wage. This will contribute to achieving our vision for an even more prosperous, safe and sustainable East Lothian, with a dynamic and thriving economy that enables our people and communities to flourish.” 

Lynn Anderson, Living Wage Scotland Manager said: “We’re delighted that East Lothian Council has become an accredited Living Wage employer. They join a growing movement of over 3750 employers in Scotland who together want to ensure workers have what they need. 

“Our Living Wage employer network includes well known organisations such as SSE plc, ENABLE Scotland and the University of Strathclyde as well as lots of smaller employers and we hope to see many more follow their example.”