After it was revealed that just 39 businesses in Oxfordshire payed the Oxford Living Wage, Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East, called on more employers to pay their employees £8.45-an-hour -; which guarantees full-time workers an annual salary of £16,697, the the minimum amount needed to live in England.
Anneliese said: “The Oxford living wage has been proven to benefit workers, employers and the local economy. Employers are finding that the living wage has improved their staff’s quality of work and lowered absenteeism.
“Living wage employers have also found increased consumer awareness of their organisation’s commitment to be an ethical employer. If more workers were paid a living wage in Oxford, it would go a long way to helping solve other problems.
“The cost of rent in Oxford can make living here unaffordable, especially for key workers, and an increase in the number of employers paying the living wage would go a long way towards solving this.”
Note to editors
Figures obtained from
http://www.oxford.gov.uk/info/20027/welfare_reform/1011/the_living_wage_and_oxford_living_wage