Council workers' pay increase with living wage

From April employees at Kempston Town Council will receive a minimum of £8.25 per hour, up 40p from their current £7.85 per hour.

Council leader Kay Burley said: “Kempston Town Council passionately believes that no-one should work for less than the ‘living wage’ so it has agreed to adopt this as an employment policy for all its staff.”

The new salary was agreed at the council’s meeting on February 9, and will only affect a handful of people employed as relief caretakers.

The Living Wage is an hourly rate set by the Living Wage Foundation which is updated annually and is calculated according to the basic cost of living using the ‘Minimum Income Standard’ for the UK.

Unlike the national minimum wage, the living wage is an informal benchmark rather than a legally-enforceable minimum level of pay and employers choose to pay the Living Wage on a voluntary basis.