OXFORD City Council has encouraged more employers to pay the Living Wage.

The Living Wage is a minimum hourly pay rate which is calculated by the Living Wage Foundation and updated every year to reflect the cost of living.

The council said 40 employers now pay it across the city – and their employees will be entitled to a pay rise from £8.45 to £8.75 from April.

As one of the least affordable places to live in the UK, house prices in Oxford are over 16 times above average earnings and a private tenant pays 56 per cent of their income on rent.

Just under a third of Oxford’s population lives in private rented housing.

Chairman of Oxford City Council's Living Wage Review, Councillor Mark Ladbrooke, said: “We welcome the fact that more than 40 Oxford businesses are now accredited by the Living Wage Foundation as Living Wage employers, and we warmly congratulate them all. We would call on more employers to join them, to pay their staff the Living Wage and get accredited.

“It’s often said that Oxford has London prices with Midlands wages – and in the case of housing we are more unaffordable than London. Paying the Living Wage would help Oxford residents to bear the real cost of living, and evidence from Living Wage employers shows that the Living Wage is also good for business.”

The owner of the Ultimate Picture Palace in Jeune Street, Becky Hallsmith, said: “I have always paid the staff salaries based on the Real Living Wage.

"Without my wonderfully enthusiastic and hard-working team there would be no business."