Fair work

The Edinburgh Living Wage City Action Group is a collaboration of employers, public sector bodies, trade unions, social enterprises, and business organisations, all committed to the promotion of Fair Work.

The group formed in 2020 in response to the Edinburgh Poverty Commission’s work. This highlighted the need for urgent action to reduce the number of residents experiencing in-work poverty in the city.

We worked together to set out an Action Plan to outline what we want to achieve for the city and how we intend to get there. You can read our plan to find out more here.

Our aims

The Edinburgh Living Wage City Action Group aims to:

• encourage more Edinburgh employers to become real Living Wage accredited businesses,
• reduce the number of Edinburgh workers earning below the living wage, and increase the number who experience fair work,
• make a critical contribution to the city’s goal to End Poverty by 2030.

We have set targets to drive our work, these are:

• to support an additional 500 Edinburgh businesses to become living wage accredited employers
• to provide Living Wage provision for up to 40,000 employees with a specific target to ensure that at least 10,000 employees benefit from an immediate pay uplift as a result of accreditation
• to ensure that growth in real Living Wage take up is focused on those sectors where low pay and insecure work in the city is most prevalent.
• to reach 900 accredited businesses in Edinburgh by 2025.

Our actions

The group does this by taking co-ordinated action to reach our targets by:

• learning about the Living Wage landscape in Edinburgh,
• promoting and encouraging accreditation,
• celebrating employers who have committed to the Living Wage movement.

For example, we recently submitted a response to the Low Pay Commission’s consultation on minimum wage rates to emphasize the importance of fair and secure pay.

We have also worked with the Living Wage Foundation to produce Living Wage Trail leaflets for Edinburgh to promote accredited businesses to visitors and residents. You can take a look at these here.