Moving towards the Living Wage

AROUND 2,000 of the lowest paid council staff in Carmarthenshire are set to get a pay rise later this year.

The move is being recommended by the Executive Board as part of the authority’s ongoing commitment to introducing the Living Wage.

The Leader Cllr Kevin Madge reiterated his intention to move towards the Living Wage when he delivered his annual report to Council some months ago.

The Executive Board discussed the issue as part of the revenue budget, and agreed they would like to drop spinal point eight, meaning the lowest wage earners will start on spinal point nine at £7.30 per hour.

The increase would bring salaries closer to the Living Wage which now stands at £7.85 per hour.

The board agreed to recommend the increase for lowest paid staff to be brought in from September.

It would cost around £101,500 to introduce it with the cash being identified from different areas.

Executive board member for People Management and Performance Cllr Mair Stephens made the proposal.

She said: “We have discussed this and agreed that as an executive board, we would wish to support the Leader who announced in his annual report his continued commitment to introducing the Living Wage in Carmarthenshire.

“The removal of another spinal point would move us closer towards that goal.”

Resources executive board member Cllr Jeff Edmunds said he had discussed with officers how the move could be funded, and that the money had been identified from the an efficiency project on printer rationalisation and from the impact of interest rates, which together would produce funding of around £209,000.

Cllr Edmunds said: “I fully support Cllr Stephen’s proposal and take on board the view that if this was deferred until September we would have funding towards reducing the council tax.”

The executive board agreed to propose dropping spinal point eight from September and to use the remainder of the cash identified to help lower the council tax increase.