Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 19 November 2025.
Marie McNair
Scottish National Party
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage businesses to implement the real living wage, in light of reports that Scotland’s level of real living wage employers is, proportionately, five times that of the United Kingdom as a whole. (S6O-05155)
Richard Lochhead
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government has a long-term funding partnership with Living Wage Scotland to support the roll-out of the real living wage accreditation scheme. The number of accredited employers has increased from 14 in 2014 to more than 4,000 today, with at least 72,000 workers in Scotland receiving a pay rise as a direct result of their employer being accredited. That has made Scotland the best performing of the four UK nations: it has the highest proportion of workers aged 18 and over who are paid the real living wage or more. That level is now 88.7 per cent against a UK average of 85.4 per cent.
Marie McNair
Scottish National Party
The payment of the living wage is a huge step in tackling in-work poverty. Will the Minister join me in acknowledging the businesses in Clydebank and Milngavie that are paying the living wage?
Furthermore, businesses are looking to the UK budget that is on the horizon. Last time, Labour hammered businesses. Will the minister join me in calling for a budget that reverses Labour’s previous punitive approach?
Richard Lochhead
Scottish National Party
I join Marie McNair in acknowledging those businesses in Clydebank and Milngavie that are paying the living wage. In this day and age, with the cost of living, it is more important than ever that they do that.
The member rightly highlights the importance of the UK budget not only to workers’ wages but to employers. The less money that employers have, the more difficult it is for them to pay the higher wages that they would perhaps wish to see. National insurance contributions and other measures are also an important part of the debate. The Scottish Government continues to try to have the best possible engagement with the UK Government on that, which is not always the easiest thing to do. The UK Treasury could be a lot more helpful with that engagement. We will continue to apply pressure to the UK Government in the run-up to the UK budget.
Murdo Fraser
Conservative
The latest data shows that, actually, the number of people receiving the real living wage in Scotland is in decline and has been for years. In 2022, the figure was 90.6 per cent; it has now dropped to 88.6 per cent. The numbers are going downwards and not upwards. Rather than congratulating itself, will the Scottish Government take some action to support businesses that want to employ people and pay them the real living wage but are struggling to do so at the moment due to Scottish National Party policies?
Richard Lochhead
Scottish National Party
As I said in my initial answer, the number of accredited employers has increased from 14 in 2014 to more than 4,000 today, and 72,000 workers benefit from that. We will continue to support the living wage agenda, which Conservative Party members have not always been the most enthusiastic about. It is perhaps a bit ironic that they are calling for more people to get the real living wage when it is not a policy that they have necessarily supported in the past. It is important that the UK budget and Scottish Government measures continue to support the promotion of the real living wage.
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