Making Living Wage Cities - It all began in Dundee

By Peter Allen, Dundee City Council

It's been over 6 months since Dundee was announced as the first 'Making Living Wage City' in the UK. Peter Allan, Chair of the Dundee Action Group, shares why greater take-up of the real Living Wage is a challenge worth pursuing in Dundee.

There's been a lot of attention paid to Dundee over the last year. The new design museum V&A Dundee has brought an unprecedented number of tourists and we have seen a real boost to our economy. But, unless we're careful, not everyone will share in this success. That's where the real Living Wage comes in. We were proud to be accredited as the first Living Wage Place in the UK. That is about much more than a nice logo that says we are Making Dundee a Living Wage City. Although it is a lovely logo!

To the members of the Living Wage City Action Group, it means that we have the chance to capture the power of the whole city to raise awareness of the importance of the real Living Wage and a public commitment to go out and convince employers that they should be valuing their workers properly.

Our Action Group reflects the great tradition of partnership in the city. The mix of public, private and voluntary members gives us a real understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing employers big and small. On behalf of the local authority, I the chair the action group and I've been thrilled by the degree of enthusiasm, energy and creativity that members of the action group are bringing to our efforts. They have ideas, networks and connections into private businesses and voluntary projects that would be impossible to achieve without their expertise.

We are delighted that our local campaign is dovetailing well with the ongoing accreditation work being done by our friends and colleagues at Living Wage Scotland. Together, we are targeting influential local companies and 'anchor organisations' who are likely to have the biggest impact on low wages because of their profile, the number of people they employ or because they are in traditionally low wage sectors like retail, hospitality and care. Our analysis tells us that these are likely to be the biggest growth areas for employment in the city so that's where we'll be focusing our efforts.

Growing our economy and tackling poverty are Dundee's biggest strategic priorities. We are confident that the real Living Wage will contribute to both. Making a place -based commitment to do this for the whole city is delivering faster and more impressive results. Already we are seeing many more employers gaining accreditation and we believe this momentum could be unstoppable.