At the start of Living Wage Week 2015, Dumfries and Galloway Council are delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted for the 2015 Living Wage Champion Awards.
These awards celebrate the employers who have done the most to implement, promote and celebrate the Living Wage in their regions and are open to accredited Living Wage Employers, Recognised Service Providers and individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the campaign. Judges were made up from an independent panel of community leaders from the Living Wage campaign who looked for testimony that the organisation had gone above and beyond to promote the Living Wage. They looked at evidence which included the Council raising awareness of the Living Wage and encouraging other organisations to pay the Living Wage and achieve accreditation.
The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually and is seen as the minimum pay rate required for a worker to meaningfully participate in society. The Living Wage is calculated according to the basic cost of living using the ‘Minimum Income Standard’ for the UK. Decisions about what to include in this standard are set by the public; it is a social consensus about what people need to make ends meet.
Dumfries and Galloway Council became a Living Wage Accredited Employer in June 2015, only the second Local Authority in Scotland to gain accreditation, and sees paying the Living Wage as one of the most important contributions to tackling poverty in our region because average wages in Dumfries and Galloway are the lowest in Scotland and it is estimated that 27.4% of employees earn less than the Living Wage in Scotland. Dumfries and Galloway Council has taken a lead in this work, both as the region’s largest employer, and as an influencer who is able to raise awareness of the issue and to encourage providers and other employers to pay their employees a Living Wage.
Leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, Councillor Ronnie Nicholson said: “We are honoured to have been shortlisted for this award. It is in recognition of all our hard work since becoming accredited to not only pay the Living Wage, but also to promote it and encourage other employers in the region to follow suit.”
“One of the Council’s main priorities is to tackle the causes and effects of inequality and poverty and through our promotion of the Living Wage we aim to raise people’s standard of living throughout the region. The Living Wage is strongly featured in the Council’s Anti-Poverty Strategy and is recognised as a way of preventing people falling into poverty and also helping them escape from poverty. Receiving a fair amount of compensation for the work that you do was seen to have an impact not only in financial/income terms, but also in terms of confidence and self-worth, which is a particular issue facing people in poverty.”
Dumfries and Galloway Council Shortlisted For Living Wage Award
