The Chair has asked officers to model the financial impacts on the Council of raising the lowest pay grades to the rate of the London Living Wage (£9.75 per hour) and £10 per hour.

The Scrutiny Officer will provide a verbal update.

The Scrutiny Officer explained that at the Chair’s request he had sought advice from Payroll on what the cost implications would be of the Council raising minimum salaries to the level of the London Living Wage (£9.75 per hour) and to £10 per hour.

He said the cost of raising wages to £9.75 an hour, including additional pension and National Insurance contributions, would be a maximum of £39,240 per year.

To raise wages to a minimum of £10 per hour would benefit 57 staff and cost a maximum of £76,972 per year. 

The Review Group also noted that the Council’s leisure partner Fusion Lifestyle pays its staff the Oxford Living Wage but makes a charge back to the Council but these figures only related to staff employed directly by the Council.

These figures were in the context of a net budget requirement of approximately £20m and gross annual service expenditure in the order of £80m-£100m (of which about £55m related to employee expenses).

The Review Group also noted that approximately half of the Council’s total workforce would be TUPE transferred to the new trading company on their existing terms but that the company may decide to offer alternative employment packages in future to new starters (although there was no suggestion the company would pay less than the Oxford Living Wage).