National living wage outside of London reaches £7.85 per hour

The living wage, a value based on the price of living factors including rent and the cost of basic retail items that differs from the National Minimum Wage, has reached £7.85 per hour, up from £7.65, the Loughborough University Centre for Research in Social Policy has announced.

Research released today by KPMG reveals that, despite the increase in the number of companies paying the living wage, there has also been an increase in employees earning less than the set benchmark.

Further research released by the Living Wage Foundation suggests that the number of companies that are committed to paying their staff the living wage has increased from 912 in September to more than 1,000 today.

However, a separate report from KPMG estimates that 5.28 million workers earn less than £7.65 per hour, the rate set in November 2013, which is around 22% of the working population.

A Living Wage Commission report in June 2014 suggested that there were only 3.4 million staff earning less than the living wage in 2011, meaning the figure has increased by more than 50%.

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