The living wage is to rise by 25p an hour, helping improve the lives of many low-paid workers.
The rate for low-paid workers outside London will rise to £7.45 and hour, while in London, it will rise to £8.55.
The current rates are £8.30 an hour in London and £7.20 in the rest of the country, compared with the national minimum wage of £6.19 for adults.
New figures released today show that the Living Wage campaign has lifted 45,000 people out of working poverty and won more than £200m of improved pay for low-income workers since it was launched in 2001.
Julia Unwin, the chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “A living wage is good for business, for the individual and for society. Consequently, it is entirely right that it enjoys cross-party political support as well as support from major employers.”
The announcements came the day after an article in the Observer by UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis and Labour MP David Miliband saying that the living wage is “in everyone’s interests”.
And Labour leader Ed Miliband has pledged to address Britain’s “living-standards crisis” by delivering a living wage of at least £7.20 per hour to millions of people in the public and private sector.
