Southwark Council has written to businesses urging them to pay all staff the £9.75-per-hour London Living Wage.
Southwark is one of sixteen London councils accredited as Living Wage employers, meaning it pays the wage (a salary of about £19,000) to all staff, and prefers contractors who do the same.
Currently only 108 Southwark businesses, including the Southwark News, are accredited Living Wage employers, while 22 per cent of employees in Southwark earn below the London Living wage – higher than the inner London average of nineteen per cent.
Cllr Johnson Situ, Southwark’s cabinet member for business, culture and social regeneration, said: “It’s really important to us to ensure that all our employees earn a decent wage, especially with the high cost of living in London… So we are calling on all Southwark employers to consider paying their staff a living wage this Living Wage Week.”