Exeter law firm implements latest Real Living Wage rates with immediate effect to offset cost of living crisis
Exeter law firm Browne Jacobson has confirmed its commitment as a Real Living Wage employer by implementing the Living Wage Foundation’s newly announced rates with immediate effect to help offset the cost of living crisis for low paid workers.
Accredited Real Living Wage employers have until May 2023 to implement the rates for 2022/23 but with inflation reaching a 40-year high, Browne Jacobson has decided to implement the new rates immediately across its UK offices, backdated to 1 September 2022. The new rates are a minimum for all its employees as well as third party contracted staff.
The latest Real Living Wage rates for 2022/23 announced today, are £10.90/hour (£11.95/hour in London). The rates are linked to living costs and are higher than the Government’s National Minimum Wage (for those 23 and over) which is currently £9.50/hour.
Browne Jacobson was formally accredited as a Living Wage Employer by the Living Wage Foundation in 2021. However, the firm had been ensuring all its people received the minimum rates as far back as 2018.
The Living Wage provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum. Around 11,00 employers have currently signed up to the Living Wage Foundation’s scheme.
Declan Vaughan, People Director at Browne Jacobson, said:
“The spiralling cost of living is at a level not seen for decades. Our decision to adopt the new rates with immediate effect recognises the true cost of living crisis and the financial hardship many low paid workers face at this moment in time.
“We hope that our decision will go some way towards softening the blow for those hardest hit and encourage others to join the 11,000 employers already committed to the Real Living Wage scheme.”
Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation, added:
"Today's new rates will provide hundreds of thousands of workers and their families with greater security and stability during these incredibly difficult times.
"We are facing unprecedented challenges with the cost-of-living crisis, but businesses continue to step up and support workers by signing up to the Living Wage in record numbers.
"We know that the Living Wage is good for employers as well as workers, that's why the real living wage must continue to be at the heart of solutions to tackle the cost-of-living crisis."
