Civil Servants: Living Wage
(asked on 24th November 2022) - View Source
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of civil service staff working are paid a rate equivalent to the real living wage, broken down by Government Department.
In the majority of Government departments, at least 98% of staff earn a rate equivalent or greater than the 2021/22 Voluntary Living Wage (£11.05 if based in London, or £9.90 if based outside of London), as at 31 March 2022. In all departments the proportion is over 90%.
Table 1: Percentage of civil servants earning at or above the Voluntary Living Wage in March 2022 by Department
Departments (including agencies) | % at or above the VLW |
Attorney General’s Departments | 98.8% |
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | 99.6% |
Cabinet Office | 99.7% |
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport | 100.0% |
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 99.9% |
Education | ≥99.9%¹ |
Transport | 92.5% |
Health and Social Care | 99.5% |
International Trade | ≥99.9%¹ |
Work and Pensions | 100.0% |
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | 99.5% |
HM Revenue and Customs | 100.0% |
HM Treasury | 99.5% |
Home Office | 98.6% |
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities | 99.4% |
Defence | 96.3% |
Justice | 98.5% |
Other² | 99.1% |
Scottish Government | 100.0% |
Welsh Government | 100.0% |
¹ Exact figure suppressed due to low numbers
² Other includes staff in Government organisations not listed separately (CC, CMA, COD, ESTYN, FSA, HMLR, NCA, NIO, OFGEM, OFQUAL, OFSTED, OFWAT, ORR, SO, TNA, UKEF, UKSA, UKSC, WO)
Figures are based on the centrally held numbers and salaries of civil servants collected in the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey as at March 2022, and may differ from those provided by individual departments. Civil servants located outside the UK or with an unreported location (6,995) or without a reported hourly rate (an additional 150) have been excluded. Percentages are calculated on a headcount basis and rounded to the nearest percentage point, due to the rounding a very small number of employees in departments listed as 100% may earn below the Voluntary Living Wage.