Employers and the Real Living Wage

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the response of employers to the Living Wage campaign. The first section presents evidence on the number of employers that have joined and their characteristics, showing that while the Living Wage has spread broadly it is found disproportionately in specific sectors, industries, and geographical locations. The next section examines employer motives for joining the scheme, identifying a range of instrumental, expressive, and institutional reasons for becoming accredited. The final sections of the chapter look at employer resistance to the Living Wage and the reasons why some refuse to adopt the standard and identifies a continuum of employer responses stretching from outright rejection to enthusiastic adoption. This range of responses is used to reflect on theories of employer strategy within neo-liberalism, and the chapter ends by rejecting claims that employers are essentially unruly, hostile to all forms of external regulation.