FSF first national football body to sign up to Living Wage

The Football Supporters’ Federation has become the first national football organisation to adopt the Living Wage.

The FSF follows the great example set by FC United, who are affiliated to the FSF, and earned accreditation in October 2014. More recently Chelsea, Everton, and Luton Town followed suit.

FSF chief executive Kevin Miles said the organisation could be proud to be a living wage employer whilst urging the Football League, Premier League, and football clubs across the country to follow suit.

Kevin said: “Here at the FSF we believe in fair pay and we’re delighted to be able to commit to paying all staff the living wage.

“We’re pleased to see that Everton are the latest club pledging to pay their staff the living wage, following the good example set by FC United and Chelsea.

“There’s enough money in football for clubs to commit to paying all staff the living wage – we’d encourage each and every one to do just that.”

Following the news of the £5bn Premier League TV deal, announced last week, Birkenhead MP Frank Fields again wrote to all Premer League clubs and Everton agreed to make the change.

A club spokesman told the Liverpool Echo:  “As a first step we can confirm that the club has from this month started paying at the least living wage to all of our directly employed permanent staff.”

The current UK living wage is £7.95, £9.15 in London, and is calculated from the cost of living in the UK.

This is higher than the legal minimum wage in the UK, presently £6.50. Currently employers adopt the wage on a voluntary basis and can apply to the Living Wage Foundation for full accreditation. Founded in 2001, more than 1,200 employers have signed up to the campaign and now offer the living wage.

The FSF is now one of them and we’re extremely proud of that.