The Real Living Wage : Civil Regulation and the Employment Relationship

The Real Living Wage presents a detailed case study of the campaign to promote the Living Wage, a voluntary standard developed by the community organizing network, Citizens UK. The campaign has run for 20 years and has resulted in more than 12,500 UK employers adopting the standard, benefiting many thousands of low-paid workers.

The book examines the nature of the Real Living Wage as a body of civil regulation, the organizations behind the campaign and the methods they have used, the response of employers, including the motives and characteristics of businesses that have adopted the Living Wage. It also examines the responses of trade unions, which have included both cooperation and conflict, the role of public authorities, which have used a variety of non-statutory policy levers to encourage employers to adopt the Living Wage, and the outcomes of the campaign in terms of redistributive benefits for employees, economic benefits for adopting businesses, and wider social and institutional impacts. The book concludes by considering what the campaign tells us about the evolution of the employment system in the UK, noting that civil regulation and the institutions which create it have become important new system-elements.