PLANS to introduce a living wage at Oxford University Hospitals Trust have been put on hold until September.

The NHS trust’s board of directors was scheduled to approve introducing an hourly living wage of £8.07 for all employees, beginning in April, next year at its meeting on Wednesday.

Organisational development and workforce director Mark Power said that the living wage would make the trust an “employer of choice and encourage more people to work there”.

He added: “We employ 11,500 staff across a range of issues, and we have some 650 employees, approximately 5.5 per cent of our overall workforce, who receive an annual salary that falls beneath the national living wage rate of £7.85 per hour.

“These particular members of staff all occupy the lowest end on the national pay scale.

“I hope within the paper I have made the case both economically and I hope morally. This is part of our aspiration to become an employer of choice.”

However, questions were raised about the anticipated £700,000 cost of introducing the scheme and the board delayed a decision until the next meeting in September.

Non-executive director Alistair Cameron said he wanted the policy to be able to “wash its face” but that it needed more fleshing out.

Board chairman Dame Fiona Caldicott said: “It is not that we are disagreeing, we would like further discussions.”