With effect from today, the UK Living Wage rate, which is voluntary unlike the mandatory national living wage rate, has increased 3.6% from £8.45 to £8.75, while the London Living Wage has increased 4.6% from £9.75 to £10.20 an hour.
The main rate is now £1.25 per hour more than the national living wage (NLW), the minimum wage rate for employees aged 25 and over. In London, it exceeds the NLW by £2.70 an hour.
Living Wage rates are independently calculated, based on the real cost of living in the UK and London. The 2017 increases have been largely driven by higher inflation feeding through to the basket of goods and services that underpin the rates, with rising private rents and transport costs also having an impact.
