Figures show thousands of NHS workers not paid enough to live on

As reported by The Independent, thousands of NHS workers are not paid enough to live on, new figures have revealed, as employers have been urged to fulfil their ‘moral’ duty to pay staff a living wage

Figures from the Living Wage Foundation shared exclusively show just 24 NHS trusts out of 219 are accredited real Living Wage employers, meaning that they offer all staff at least £10.90 an hour. In London, just 13 of the city’s 34 NHS trusts are accredited.

London mayor Sadiq Khan, and an NHS CEO David Bradley, have urged NHS trusts in the city to pay a living wage to all, while the union Unite said it was a “scandal” that so many in the capital did not offer it.

David Bradley, CEO of South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLAM), which is leading the charge to encourage an uplift in pay to the living wage said “we’ve got a moral responsibility” to offer a living wage.

“We’re all really struggling in terms of getting staff, you know, filling vacancies. If you can show that you are a living wage employer, an accredited employer, that helps to be able to attract [staff].”

Employees must pay national minimum wage rates of between £4.81 and £9.18, depending on age, from school-leaving age up until the age of 23, while workers who are 23 or older must get a wage of £9.50 an hour – rebranded by the government as the “national living wage” in 2016.

However, the Living Wage Foundation sets the real living wage – a higher sum voluntarily paid by over 11,000 employers based on basic living costs. It stands at £11.95 in London and £10.90 across the rest of the UK, but there is no legal requirement to pay it.

The Living Wage foundation said that while it was possible some NHS trusts were providing real living wages without accreditation, it was unlikely.

While most clinical staff, who are contracted under something called Agenda for Change, get a living wage by default, thousands of people who work in catering, cleaning and admin roles are missing out.

Union and NHS leaders said this was often because these services are outsourced to private sector organisations which are paying lower wages.

Mr Bradley warned the NHS was already losing staff to better-paid jobs, citing the example of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust which had seen staff move to an Amazon warehouse that opened nearby, despite paying the living wage.

The campaign, headed by Mr Bradley and the major’s office, aims for at least 75 per cent of NHS trusts in London to be accredited by next April.