Living wage for all support staff at Plymouth schools

Plymouth City Council is asking academies and non-maintained schools to follow its example by ensuring all employees are paid a living wage.

The Council has committed that all staff in Council maintained schools will be paid a minimum hourly rate that ensures they have enough to meet the basic cost of living.

The commitment to pay a living wage set nationally particularly helps support staff such as mealtime assistants and cleaners.

The Council has now written to all schools asking them to look at ensuring all their staff are paid a living wage through discretionary top ups to their hourly rates.

The Council is also increasing the current living wage for all staff employed at local authority maintained schools in Plymouth from £7.65 per hour to £7.85.

There are currently 1663 employees who benefit from the living wage supplement.

Councillor Sue McDonald, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Public Health, said: "There are many people in Plymouth working hard providing services to children and young people but struggling to meet the basic cost of living. By introducing a living wage for schools maintained by the Council we're directly supporting staff in frontline roles in areas such as cleaning and catering.

“These are dedicated workers, who provide many important services and we have a duty to make sure that their pay covers the basic cost of living.

“As a fair and responsible employer with a commitment to tackling poverty in Plymouth, we are encouraging non maintained schools to follow our lead in paying a living wage. More and more employers are recognising the need to pay a living wage, which is encouraging.”