FROM Monday, anyone working a 37-hour week in Oxford should not be earning any less than £19,278 a year – at least according to the city council.

Even without undertaking any formal research, it is clear many people in Oxford are not earning that much.

Contrary to Oxford’s reputation as a leafy seat of culture and learning, even the most fleeting of visitors will notice just how much poverty there is in the city and on its outskirts.

The council clearly wants to improve things for people struggling to get by on a low salary. That was its clear intention in introducing the Oxford Living Wage 11 years ago – but there are ways in which it has not necessarily brought what many might have hoped.

Most obviously, the take-up has been limited.

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More Oxford University colleges are paying the Oxford Living Wage than ever before – but there are still lots more to sign up.

Those who have agreed to pay it already will give staff a minimum of £10.02 an hour from the start of the new financial year on Monday (the Oxford Living Wage is 95 per cent of the Living Wage paid in London).

The council must balance attracting new businesses into the city against asking them to pay their workers more than they might need to in other parts of the country. Oxford has struggled to attract new businesses recently.

The council said it wanted to attract another 200 over the 2018/19 financial year, but according to papers published this month, it had attracted about 40. (That said, the business rates received from the Westgate Centre was above what it had initially thought it would receive.)

At the start of the year, the city council promoted what it said will be a considerable rise for some workers across Oxford.

For example, the increase to £10.02 is from £9.69 an hour – representing an increase of more than £600 extra a year for a typical full-time worker.

The city council said 57 of its own staff will be affected by the change.

The Oxford Living Wage will be £2 higher than the National Living Wage, which George Osborne introduced when he was Chancellor. (To complicate things even further, the Living Wage Foundation also promotes the Living Wage, which is separate to both of those.)

The Oxford Bus Company is another example of a firm that has voluntarily signed up to the city council’s Living Wage.

Earlier this year, the city council’s Oxford Living Wage champion Martyn Rush said: “We must work together to make the argument that our universities and colleges must all become ‘Oxford Living Wage Zones.’

“It will take all of us – council, students and civic campaigns working together.

“But Oxford must become a Living Wage City. It is the economically sound thing to do, it is the morally right thing to do, it is the socially just thing to do.

“It will make our city a more equal, just, healthy, sustainable place. Oxford needs a pay rise – Oxford needs the Living Wage.”

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The council is limited to what it can do and by allocating just £20,000 this year to boost the profile of the campaign, it’s clear that much of it will be reliant primarily on political will.

A big chunk of the take-up on the scheme is by Oxford colleges and charities – there is a lack of big high street names and larger employers doing the same.

St Peter’s, Merton, Oriel, Wadham, Mansfield, University, Hertford, St Cross, The Queen’s, Christ Church, Somerville, St Hilda’s, Jesus, Pembroke, Green Templeton, Lincoln Colleges and Campion Hall are all currently paying at least the Oxford Living Wage – but why not the others?

Perhaps the city council hasn’t badgered them enough about it.

Enforcement is another issue: it is a voluntary scheme so the council cannot force companies to continue if they decide they no longer want to do so.

Many other higher education employers are also Oxford Living Wage adopters, including Oxford University, the university’s students’ union and the Open University.

Other private sector employers include Santander, Barclays and Grant Thornton, all of whom have several branches across the city.

Oxfam, firmly rooted in the city, also participate in the scheme, as do Richer Sounds, Pearson and Annie Sloan Interiors.

Majestic Wine, T2 Tea and the Church Mission Society also pay it.

Having a definitive list of 69 employers is a step forward from just a few months ago, when the city council was promoting something but had no proof of who was paying it.

When Westgate Centre managers attended a city council meeting earlier this year, councillors were forceful in asking whether new companies would pay the Oxford Living Wage.

But it needs to attract more companies and increase the number of people who know about it – and the Oxford Living Wage will remain a rather limited success until then.