After a year in which the number of Living Wage employers increased by 450%, Boris Johnson pledged to boost his support for the campaign in 2014. The Mayor of London used his column in the Daily Telegraph to address "the ever more urgent question of how a great city tackles the gulf between rich and poor" . He proposed the Living Wage as "a simple and elegant way of helping some of the hardest-working people in Britain" and "a principle that any Conservative, surely, would want to support".
The Mayor, who announced the new London Living Wage rate of £8.80 during Living Wage Week 2013, also committed to place the Living Wage at the centre of his plans for 2014:
"My new year resolution for 2014 is to find even more supporters for the London Living Wage - and especially from those key sectors, such as retail, that have been hardest to win over; and if you happen to be a corporate titan, I hope you will feel the same. Happy New Year!"
The Mayor's pledge came on the same day John Cridland, Director General of the CBI, said that despite economic growth, there were "still far too many people stuck in minimum wage jobs without routes to progression, and that's a serious challenge that businesses and the government must address." As the economy improves Mr Cridland called on businesses to deliver "better pay and more opportunities" for their employees.