Brent council in London hopes to become the first in Britain to offer business rate discounts to companies that pay the living wage.
The council plans to offer as much as £5,000 off for the biggest employers signing up to the voluntary pay rate, which is £9.15 an hour in London, compared with a national minimum wage of £6.50 an hour. The living wage outside London is now £7.85 after the rates were raised this week to ensure they continue to provide a basic but decent standard of living.
Brent council’s cabinet will make a final decision on its living wage incentive in January in time to introduce it for the new tax year in April 2015. The business rate discount would be a one-off, equivalent to five times the cost of being accredited as a living wage employer.
Nearly 30% of jobs in Brent are low paid, the council said. For the whole of the UK, 22% of employees are on less than the living wage, according to a report from consultancy KPMG to mark the start of living wage week on Monday.
Councillor Roxanne Mashari said: “We are committed to championing the living wage and tackling the root causes of poverty in our borough. We know that paying the living wage makes good business sense as it incentivises staff and helps to recruit and retain the best people, whilst reducing absenteeism.”
