Minimum pay for Cambridge City Council staff expected to rise to £11 per hour

The minimum amount city council staff and agency workers are paid could increase after councillors showed support for raising the Cambridge weighting level.

It is proposed to raise pay from a minimum of £10 per hour to £11 per hour from April 2023.

The Cambridge weighting is a pay supplement introduced by the authority in 2018 to bring the minimum hourly rate paid up to £10, in case where the existing hourly rate and Real Living Wage supplement did not meet that amount.

Those on hourly rates of £9.60, £9.79 and £9.99 have had their pay increased to £10 per hour as a result.

Last Thursday, it was announced that the Real Living Wage, set by the Living Wage Foundation charity, will increase by £1 to £10.90.

Council officers told the civic affairs committee the previous evening that this increase, along with the proposed national pay offer currently being considered, would bring the hourly rate to above £10. Because of this, officers said it was time to review the Cambridge weighting.

A report presented said the proposals to increase the Cambridge weighting would “impact in a positive way on the lowest paid staff at a time when the cost of living is increasing at an unprecedented rate”.

Cllr Sam Carling (Lab, West Chesterton) questioned whether it was possible to bring forward the increase from the planned April 2023.

He said: “I was wondering if there is any feasible way we could get this to take effect more quickly given how much the cost of living crisis has made people struggle in the last few months, with inflation being as high as it is now.”

A council officer said: “The proposal is that it increases in April in line with the fact that we have got the Real Living Wage tomorrow (last Thursday), which will be an increase and will take it above £10.

“The [national] pay award will be backdated to April 1, 2022 and is likely to take the pay rate to £10.60, so the proposal is that there is a further increase on April 1, 2023.

“It is really about affordability, timing and continuing to have something which is on offer. It was considered, but the report is proposing April 1, 2023.”

Cllr Katie Thornburrow (Lab, Petersfield) asked if the unions had been consulted on the proposals, and was told they had and that they were supportive.

The committee voted to recommend that the increase go ahead, but the proposals will still need to be approved at the next full council meeting.