Our campaign for a Living Wage

Act now!

About the Living Wage campaign

Churches and the Living Wage

Further reading

Act now!

• Ensure that your church pays all its employees a Living Wage of at least £7.60 an hour (as of summer 2010). You can download our Living Wage briefing for churches to find out more. In Scotland the figure is £7.15 and in London £7.85.

• Sign up for updates. Just as the national minimum wage changes every October, Church Action on Poverty advises churches, community groups and the voluntary sector to adjust their Living Wage each autumn. Sign up to receive updates, and we will email you each year to let you know the new rate.
  You can also support the Living Wage campaign on Facebook.

• Sign up as an official Living Wage Employer. (You have to pay a one-off £100 fee.)

About the Living Wage campaign

• Church Action on Poverty calls upon all employers to pay a Living Wage. We are asking churches to take a lead and set an example for other employers.
  
• The Living Wage is updated each year, in the summer.
• You can download our full briefing on the Living Wage for churches here. It includes more information about how the Living Wage is calculated and updated.
• Regional variations are reflected in the different figures for London £7.85 (since 9 June 2010) and Scotland £7:15 (since 27 May 2010).
• Our Living Wage campaign is part of the Fair Pay Network.
• The campaign was launched in 2002, based on research carried out by Church Action on Poverty: A Living Wage Church? You can download a summary or the full report from the research. 

Churches and the Living Wage

• We believe that it is the churches' moral responsibility to take a lead by paying all their employees a Living Wage, not the minimum wage.
  "Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honour God." (Proverbs 14:31)
  
• Many of the UK's denominations support the Living Wage:
• Methodists – All churches, districts, circuits and projects are required to pay the Living Wage by the end of the 2010-11 financial year, except in exceptional circumstances.  See the text of the 2010 Conference decision here.
  
• Baptists – In 2008, the Assembly of the Baptist Union of Great Britain passed a resolution on care for church employees, calling for churches to “consider carefully their employment practice in the light of Church Action on Poverty’s work highlighting the need for churches to work for social justice within their own communities”
• Church of Scotland – The 2010 General Assembly instructed the Church and Society Council “to work with presbyteries to help congregations become Living Wage employers”. There will be a progress report to the 2011 General Assembly.
  
• United Reformed Church – The URC’s 2008 General Assembly passed a resolution calling on all URC Synods and churches to “support Church Action on Poverty’s call for churches to pay a living wage as determined by the Living Wage campaign”.
• Church of England – The 2006 Faithful Cities report  recommended the Living Wage.
• Roman Catholic Church – At least one diocese has pledged support for the principle.
• The Society of Friends - Quakers in Britain are committed to maintaining a ratio of four to one between their lowest- and highest-paid workers, and consider that "economic systems which are based on justice rather than exploitation are a necessary part of a peaceful society". All staff in their centrally managed work are paid well above a living wage.
  

• Theologians and activists have laid out the theological justifications for similar living wage campaigns in the US. You can download the articles here:
• "Entitled neighbors: a biblical perspective on living wage" by Walter Brueggeman
• "The Living Wage Movement: It’s About More than Just Wages" by Dick Gillett

• "A movement pushing a 'winnable issue': Church-labor coalitions for living-wage legislation are gaining momentum" by Ethan Flad

Further reading

• In 2009, the Fair Pay Network published Not Just for the Good Times, a report laying out why a living wage is even more important during a time of recession.
  
• In June 2006, the New Statesman issued an  editorial statement supporting calls for a Living Wage.
• Hard Work is award-winning Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee's graphic account of poverty and low pay in 21st century Britain.
• Jane Willis of the University of London carried out research suggesting what UK campaigners could learn from US living wage campaigns: "Turnaround in Tucson".