Council budget adjusted to cope with extra costs of pay awards

A COUNCIL budget has been adjusted because the cost of meeting pay deals over the next two years will be about double what was anticipated.

Part of the rise has been put down to Barnsley Council’s policy of working to ensure that not only its own staff get paid the living wage but that those working for sub-contractors also get enough money to allow them to survive in the real world.

In combination with nationally agreed wage rises, it means the cost over two years will be about £6m, double what the council’s financial experts had been anticipating last year.

Barnsley Council is anticipating pay awards of two per cent for staff this year and next year, though lower-paid staff will see bigger increases, with some benefiting by as much as nine per cent over the two-year period.

That means the cost to the council overall will amount to a 5.6 per cent increase in its wage bill.

The cost of meeting the living wage – which is higher than the minimum wage – will add £1.7m to the council’s bill because it wants to ensure staff working for external contractors also benefit from the arrangement.

In addition, the council is facing other wage costs, including having to spend an additional £2.9m in the 12 months ahead to ensure it has the staff in place to deal with population changes.

The national living wage is £8.75 an hour, against £7.50 for the minimum wage, the lowest figure which can legally be paid to those aged over 25.