Make Birmingham a Living Wage City: Citizens UK Birmingham and Midlands TUC to visit Birmingham Living Wage employers

date: 25 February 2015
embargo: For immediate release
 

The Midlands TUC and Citizens UK Birmingham have joined forces in response to the revelation Birmingham Northfield is the top living wage blackspots in the country with 53.4 per cent of the jobs based there paying less than the living wage.

On Thursday afternoon, campaigners will be visiting employers in Birmingham City Centre to present a ‘thank you’ card for paying the Living Wage. Chocolate and campaign speech bubbles will also be presented to staff as part of the campaign to encourage more employers to commit to paying the Living Wage.

Midlands TUC Regional Secretary, Lee Barron, said: “The appalling Birmingham living wage statistics revealed during Fair Pay Fortnight demonstrates the urgent need to make Birmingham a “Living Wage City. It is simply unacceptable that so many brummies, and people right across the Midlands, are not earning at least the Living Wage.

That is why it is right to give credit to those Birmingham employers who have committed to working with staff and unions to pay their workforce the Living Wage, and we will work with others to urge more employers to follow suit.

“The number of living wage employers is growing rapidly and unions are playing their part in encouraging more employers to sign up and pay it. But we need to see a far wider commitment to pay the living wage from government, employers and modern wages councils – to drive up productivity and set higher minimum rates in industries where employers can afford to pay their staff more.”

Citizens UK Birmingham Organiser, Becca Kirkpatrick  said:  “Citizens UK shares the TUC’s aspiration to make Birmingham a Living Wage city. Though there is much to do, Birmingham City Council, KPMG, Unity Trust Bank and others have already shown great leadership in helping to increase the number of accredited Living Wage employers here.

More employers every week are discovering that the Living Wage is not only good for the wellbeing of their staff and their families, it’s good for business too. We believe that everybody deserves to earn a Living Wage, and we will organise with our partners all year round to persuade more employers to pay it.’

NOTES TO EDITORS:
- Campaigners will be visiting employers between 1.00pm and 3.30pm.

- House of Commons Library figures, based on data from the Office for National Statistics
- The full analysis of who is paid under the living wage by constituency and local authority is available through the Office for National Statistics/House of Commons: Percentage of employee jobs with hourly pay excluding overtime below the living wage by region and parliamentary constituency (place of work), UK, April 2013 and 2014
- The TUC is organising Fair Pay Fortnight 2015 between Monday 16 February and Sunday 1 March. The Fortnight is part of the TUC’s Britain Needs a Pay Rise campaign and will feature a series of events across England and Wales to raise awareness about low pay, pay inequality and the need for higher pay settlements in the public and private sector. For more information please visit www.fairpayfortnight.org
- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk
- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:
Media enquiries:
Rob Johnston T: 0121 236 4454  M: 07879 497291  E: rjohnston@tuc.org.uk
Lee Barron T: 0121 236 4454 M: 07919 102472 E: lbarron@tuc.org.uk