Fair Work: action plan

17. The Real Living Wage

Research shows paying the real Living Wage can enhance productivity, reduce absenteeism, and improve staff morale. Scotland has the highest proportion of employees being paid at least the real Living Wage of all four UK nations - 80.6%, ahead of England 77.1%, Wales 74.0% and NI 72.3% and the UK 77.2%. There are currently over 1300 real Living Wage accredited employers in Scotland.

We have provided funding to enable adult social care workers to be paid the real Living Wage, which has already benefited up to 40,000 care workers, mostly women. Additional resources have been made available to extend this commitment to sleepover hours during 2018/19. From 2020 we will make funding available so that the real Living Wage can be paid to all workers delivering funded early learning and childcare hours.

Over the next three years, the Scottish Government will work with the Poverty Alliance and other partners to build a 'Living Wage Nation', focused on boosting the wages of 25,000 people.

To achieve this we will concentrate on celebrating the benefits that employers in traditionally low paid sectors and locations have realised by paying the real Living Wage. We will also work with a range of partners to ensure that the relationship between the living wage and gender pay equality is a focus of our efforts to promote the real living wage.

Our approach will include recognising a range of Living Wage Towns, Cities, and Regions across Scotland with the first Living Wage City set to be announced in spring 2019.