The real Living Wage is voluntarily paid by nearly 5,000 UK businesses and is separate and higher than the government’s statutory minimum wage.

Calculations are made based on a basket of household goods and services, and reflects what people need to get by.

The Living Wage Foundation has announced that the real Living Wage should rise from £8.75 to £9 an hour across the UK and from £10.20 to £10.55 an hour for those working in London.

In total, around 180,000 employees should see their wages rise as a result.

Employers are encouraged to implement the rise as soon as possible, with employees receiving the new rates by 1 May 2019.

As part of last week’s Budget, the Chancellor announced The National Living Wage (statutory minimum for workers aged 25+) would increase from £7.83 an hour to £8.21 an hour in April 2019, benefiting 2.4 million employees.

Warren Kenny, GMB regional secretary said: “Now it’s time for more employers to start paying it. In particular, contractors in the public sector and the NHS who should be forced to pay it.

“These pay increases are badly needed. Earlier this year, GMB showed that across London as a whole the real value of average wages for workers resident in the capital in 2017 was only 84.6% of the buying power they had in 2007 when inflation is factored in. In the East of England the figure was 89.4%.”