In 2005 the Mayor of London established a Living Wage unit. Its first report, by Alan Freeman and Leticia Veruete-McKay, describes the calculation of London’s first Living Wage, which was set in the same year. This was the first time a major UK authority had established a Living Wage, and was a key moment in the history of the long campaign for the Living Wage in which I was proud to work with Deborah Littman and many other tireless and unsung heroines and heroes of a vital and ongoing battle for worker rights. I would write a book about it, have made a few attempts to do so, and the book certainly needs to be written; but time is the tyrant of us all.
The report is accompanied by a slide show.
For current information this site is useful