Greater Manchester Living Wage Campaign
The prevalence of low paying work in the UK means that many working people lack the money they require to meet their basic needs and to participate fully in society.
This is one of the reasons why in-work poverty is so high in this country, including in Greater Manchester.
The Living Wage can play an important role in addressing low pay and boosting household income. The Living Wage is an hourly payrate set by campaigners that reflects the real cost of living in a way that the statutory minimum set by government doesn’t.
Resolve Poverty runs the Greater Manchester Living Wage Campaign. This involves advocating for widespread adoption of the Living Wage by employers across the city region. The campaign’s mission has always been to make Greater Manchester a Living Wage City Region. In 2021, that became Greater Manchester’s mission.
Resolve Poverty is helping to make this a reality. There were just 26 Real Living Wage accredited employers in Greater Manchester when our Living Wage Campaign started. By 1 August 2024, there were 797.
Greater Manchester Living Wage Campaign Coordinator John Hacking recently featured on the Living Wage Foundation‘s first ever podcast, ‘Work that Works for Everyone‘. Listen below to hear about the national impact of living wage advocacy, local presence in the initiative and the impact and benefits of the campaign.
Podcasts
In this podcast, the GMLWC Co-ordinator John Hacking is in conversation with Councillor Tom Ross, the leader of Trafford Council. Tom discusses the journey that has led to Trafford Council deciding to become a real Living Wage employer and where that decision sits in the overall work that the council and it’s partners are doing to tackle poverty in Trafford and in particular to counter the impact that the cost of living crisis is having on low paid workers in the borough.
In this podcast, John Hacking the GMLWC Co-ordinator, speaks to Dr Calum Carson, a researcher from Manchester Metropolitan University, about his PhD on “The UK Living Wage Campaign: Experiences of Employers, Workers and Advocates.”
The interview covers how the research was undertaken, what the key findings were and what it tells us about the real Living Wage in the UK.
Further information
To get involved in the campaign or to discuss your organisation becoming an accredited employer, please contact us.
To find out more about the Living Wage please visit the Living Wage Foundation website. The Foundation promotes this agenda nationally and sets the new hourly living wage payrates each autumn. There is information about becoming an accredited Living Wage Employer here.
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