Dundee bids to become UK’s first ‘living wage’ city

The Living Wage Foundation said today that employers across the City of Discovery have joined forces in order to boost the number of jobs which pay the voluntary living wage of £9, significantly higher than the government minimum of £7.83.

More than 50 employers in Dundee have already committed to paying their staff and subcontractors the living wage, covering a quarter of all workers in the city.

The alliance includes major local employers such as Dundee City Council, DC Thomson, Dundee Voluntary Action, Dundee & Angus College, Xplore Dundee and Dundee & Angus Chamber of Commerce. 

The Scottish Government’s Fair Work Minister Jamie Hepburn Jamie Hepburn said: “The significance of the living wage cannot be overstated.”

An alliance has been formed between the city council,  and the local chamber of commerce among other employers to carry out the voluntary living wage plan.

It comes more than a year after the Scottish government set out plans to make Scotland a “living wage nation” over the next three years.

Measures include a regionally focused accreditation scheme for employers to create the UK’s “first living wage towns, cities and regions”.

John Alexander, Leader of Dundee City Council who are part of the alliance said: “In Dundee we are incredibly proud to be championing the real Living Wage and implementing this new approach to encourage more local businesses to pay the real Living Wage.

“The city council is one of the largest Living Wage employers in the city, ensuring that all our workers receive a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.”

“I am aware that there is still more to do and we will work with partners to encourage and support more employers in the city to pay the real Living Wage.”

Lynn Anderson, Living Wage Places National Coordinator at Living Wage Scotland said: “We are delighted to launch the ‘Making Living Wage Places’ scheme and recognise Dundee as the first city in the UK to adopt the approach.”

“This scheme encourages local employers to work together to promote the benefits of paying the real Living Wage to other businesses.  The alliance of local Living Wage employers in Dundee have produced an impressive Action Plan which should see thousands of workers in Dundee benefit from pay increases to the real Living Wage over the next three years, and recognition of this is well deserved”.

Peter Kelly, Director of the Poverty Alliance, who host Living Wage Scotland, said: “The commitment of this alliance of employers to the people of Dundee is hugely exciting. We look forward to working with them on making Dundee a Living Wage city. We want to see towns and cities in Scotland work with us to put an end to low pay, and this is the first step on that journey.”

Ellis Watson, Executive Chairman of DC Thomson Media and Chairman of Tay Cities Enterprise Executive, said: “DC Thomson made a conscious decision to pay all of our direct employees the real Living Wage around five years ago. Having seen the difference it makes to people’s lives, we extended it to all of our group companies and agency colleagues regularly working in our offices, signing up as an accredited Living Wage employer in 2017.

“In these times of economic uncertainty across the UK, it is heartening to see Dundee taking the lead in tackling low pay, and the inequality it creates, by becoming the UK’s first city formally recognised for its Living Wage ambition. Being part of this initiative allows us to work with other like-minded employers to help transform the city and ensure local people benefit from and have a stake in the local community. “Businesses only thrive when those that work for them and buy from them are prospering too.”

Douglas White, Head of Advocacy, Carnegie UK Trust said: “The Carnegie UK Trust has been delighted to support the development of the Making Living Wage Places scheme and we are thrilled that Dundee is the first place in the UK to make this highly important commitment. We look forward to seeing the progress the city makes and to many other places following Dundee’s impressive lead.”

Clare Goff, Living Wage Places Project Manager at the Living Wage Foundation said: “Major employers within Dundee are working together to improve the lives of citizens and boost the local economy by making a real Living Wage the norm.”

“The Living Wage Foundation has launched the ‘Making Living Wage Places’ scheme to recognise groups of local ‘anchor’ institutions which not only pay the Living Wage to their employers and contractors, but which also seek to use their power and influence to spread Living Wage accreditation through their local area.”