The council is inviting local employers interested in finding out more about the Real Living Wage to an event on 6 November from 5-7pm at Allia Future Business Centre, King’s Hedges Road, Cambridge.
The event will celebrate those businesses that have already become accredited and explore the business benefits, such as an enhanced ethical reputation, of gaining Living Wage accreditation from the Living Wage Foundation.
The council will also run a Living Wage Week stall in Cambridge central market on 7 November to raise awareness of the Real Living Wage. Shoppers will be encouraged to spread the word about the Real Living Wage among the shops and local businesses they visit.
Since the Real Living Wage campaign in Cambridge was launched in November 2014, the number of accredited organisations has increased from 16 to 53.
As part of the Living Wage campaign, the council has directly supported 24 of the employers that have become accredited in the past two years.
Three local employers have recently become the latest organisations in Cambridge to receive Living Wage accreditation, including Allia, the hosts of the Living Wage Week celebratory event on 6 November.
Allia is a charity that supports a range of individuals, corporate, voluntary and public sector organisations to use their investment money for social good. The other two recently accredited employers include the local charity Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum and the transport company, OFO.
Cllr Richard Johnson, Executive Councillor for Communities, said: “The campaign for the Real Living Wage has made good progress in raising the incomes of the lowest paid residents in Cambridge.
“The Real Living Wage is independently-calculated based on what people need to get by. That is why we are encouraging all local employers that can afford to do so to ensure their employees earn a wage that meets the costs of living, not just the government minimum.
“There is still much work to be done to tackle poverty and help people meet high living costs in the city and we want local employers to join us in paying people a Real Living Wage.”
Employers can book a place at the Living Wage Week event on 6 November from 5pm to 7pm at Allia Future Business Centre, through Eventbrite here or by emailing [email protected].
The council has run two events this year to explain the role of the Real Living Wage in tackling poverty. This included an event on the Real Living Wage targeted at social enterprises, which also explored business benefits of accreditation, and an anti-poverty summit, which explored different areas of progress made of the council’s Anti-poverty Strategy.