West Ham will be paying the London Living Wage of £9.15 per hour to all permanent full time and part time staff from this June. The rate is significantly higher than the current national minimum wage of £6.50 an hour.
A West Ham insider told WestHamTillIDie “We’ve agreed to do it when we are 100% safe [from relegation] for all full and part time employees. It’s something we support very strongly”
Earlier this week, Chelsea became the first Premier League club to publicly support the London living wage and gain The Living Wage Foundation’s accreditation but the West Ham insider assured us that the Hammers move was not in response to Chelsea’s announcement and the club have wanted to do this for some time.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said earlier this week: ‘Our great football teams are household names around the world, their every action is scrutinised in microscopic detail and by becoming the first professional sports team to commit to pay the London Living Wage Chelsea are setting the right example.They realise their team is more than just the 11 men out on the pitch, and that by putting more pounds in the pockets of their staff they are signing up to a win-win scenario that rewards a hard day’s work with a fair day’s pay for everyone."
On Wednesday Evening, Iain Dale used his LBC radio show to ask why more Premier League don’t follow the lead of Chelsea. His radio guest, Sophie Stevens from Citizens UK who said she had been in regular correspondence with Karen Brady who agreed she would look at it in the future for West Ham.
Well done West Ham United!
UPDATE FROM IAIN: I am thrilled that West Ham have decided to do this. When I covered this on my radio show on Wednesday I was pleased to hear that discussions were underway and I hope that maybe that discussed and this site’s interest in the matter might have played a small part in getting the final decision made. Let’s hope the rest of the Premier League follow suit in the next few monnths. If my small publishing company, which employs 14 people can guarantee to pay the living wage, then surely businesses that are about to receive £100 million a year for doing nothing extra at all can do so too!
Credit to David Sullivan and David Gold for being totally in favour of this, and to Karren Brady for implementing it.
UPDATE: Everton have also announced they too are adopting the Living Wage.