AQW 24273/17-22

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 14/10/2021
Answered On Date: 10/11/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities (i) whether her Department and all organisations contracted or funded by her Department are paying staff the living wage; and (ii) will she be ensuring any organisation delivering services will meet living wage standards in 2022/23.

Answer:

New Decade New Approach included a commitment for the Executive to become a Living Wage Employer and the Department of Finance has put the necessary arrangements in place for this.

These include a pay award for the Civil Service that ensures the payment of the Living Wage and a new procurement policy that will see the Living Wage also being included as a condition of contract for all tenders from June 2022.

On this basis, the Department of Finance has been engaging with the Living Wage Foundation to secure formal accreditation, and the Finance Minister hopes to be in a position to make an announcement soon in that regard.