Two more London University institutions have agreed to pay the living wage to their cleaners and caterers as a result of London Citizens campaigns — adding their names to a fast-growing list.

Goldsmith’s College and the Institute of Education agreed last week to implement the Living Wage (currently £7.60 per hour) as soon as possible.

Other London universities who have signed up to the LLW as a result of London Citizens campaigns are: Queen Mary University, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Birkbeck, the London School of Economics (LSE), and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The living wage has been set since 2004 by the Greater London Authority’s Living Wage Unit after London Citizens persuaded the then mayor, Ken Livingstone, to back the idea of a basic wage for London that reflects the real costs of the capital.

At a 25 May meeting, leaders from London Citizens met with Bryn Morris (Head of Administration) and Anthony Tyrrell (Head of Estates) of the Institute of Education to agree steps towards the implementation of the LLW. Praising London Citizens for their ‘exemplary way of campaigning’ , Bryn Morris said that the Institute of Education has a duty to address the link between poverty and academic attainment (as indicated, for instance, in a recent report by The Office for Fair Access).

More than 650,000 children in London  — 41 per cent of the total — live in poverty. The London Child Poverty Commission believes that one of the key means of reducing that number is for all London employers to pay the LLW.

Goldsmith’s College also agreed to work with London Citizens to champion the Living Wage across the Higher Education sector. Chris Pearson, Director of Human Resources at Goldsmith’s, said access to higher education was a right, and that poverty wages should  never be  allowed to prevent that access. Paying the Living Wage, he said, is a practical way to help those in most need.

Sebastien Chapleau, Living Wage organiser for Higher Education, said he was delighted to welcome Goldsmith’s College and the Institute of Education to the list of LW employers. “Educational institutions need to lead by example, and this is what Goldsmith’s and the IoE are doing.  We look forward to working with them to champion the LLW across the Higher Education sector.”

Senior staff at both Goldsmith’s College and the Institute of Education have been persuaded of the financial, as well as ethical benefits, of paying their low-paid staff the LLW. As argued by Professor Jane Wills in a case study, ‘[o]nce employers implement the Living Wage, they can secure improvements in productivity through enhanced worker-morale, reduced turnover and additional managerial innovation. This reduces the cost of implementation [...].’

Professor Wills believes the LLW is almost cost neutral.

Later this month, London Citizens and the University of London Union will launch a joint strategy aimed at persuading the remaining colleges and institutions in the University of London to pay their cleaning, catering, and security staff the LLW.

Part of that strategy will be issue statements from Living Wage champions such as the principals of Queen Mary University and SOAS, the Directors of the LSE and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Master of Birkbeck, London Mayor Boris Johnson, and the Employee Relations Director of Barclays Bank.

For recent media coverage of the progress of the LLW campaign see:

BBC Online (23^rd April)

London Student (27^th April)

BBC Online (5^th May)

East London Lines (26^th May)