Progress claimed for Living Wage campaign

Recent employer sign-ups include the social care charity Quarriers, which has increased the payt of more than 1,000 workers to £9 an hour.

The Scottish Government funded programme, which was established in 2014 and is hosted by the Poverty Alliance, is in its first year of a new three-year strategy.

It aims to deliver pay increases to the real Living Wage- currently £9 an hour- for at least 25,000 more workers.

Living Wage Scotland manager Julie McGahan said: “Since April this year we have accredited 250 Living Wage employers, resulting in uplifts in pay to the real Living Wage for 6,741 workers in Scotland.

“This is sound progress which puts us well on track to deliver our first year’s target of 7500 uplifts by April”.

A Monklands Hospital worker who received a pay increase when NHS Lanarkshire became the first territorial Health Board to become accredited said: “The fact I am paid the real Living Wage means I have more chance to pay my bills and have some money left over to do the nice things like go to the pictures, treat my children and grandchildren, making it all less of a worry.”