Arsenal are set to apply for London Living Wage accreditation meaning all matchday workers – both in-house and agency – will earn a minimum of £11.95 an hour.
Calculated independently, the London Living Wage reflects the high cost of living in the capital and is designed to afford workers and their families enough money to afford day-to-day essentials and to save for the future.
The scheme, which was launched in 2011, is opt-in only but is said to be ‘good business sense’ as companies who pay the going rate report reduced absenteeism and sick leave, find it easier to recruit and retain staff and see a boost in staff morale.
While the Gunners were already paying the London Living Wage to the majority of its employees, including permanent staff and outsourced stewards and cleaning staff, it didn’t include third-party catering staff working for Delaware North. Staff on their books received the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage with prices ranging from £7.49 to £10.42 depending on age.
Chelsea, West Ham and Crystal Palace are already accredited while Brentford, Fulham and Sp*rs claim they also pay the minimum fee required.
The decision marks a victory for supporters groups who’ve spent a decade calling on Arsenal to make the commitment.
Akhil Vyas from the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust [AST] told Arseblog News: “It’s great to see everyone at Arsenal, including those working for a third party are getting the London Living Wage.
“It’s something the AST have pushed for a while. Arsenal is a community, and we want staff to be treated well and are delighted those not directly working for Arsenal, but who are still certainly part of the Arsenal family, will get that extra bit of help.”
Excellent news!!
Yes, but it’s a shame we weren’t at the forefront of local clubs though. As Arsenal, we should be setting the trend in this kind of thing, not following it.
Most of our team are getting this £11.95 *per minute* not per hour, whether they are playing, training, sleeping, eating, enjoying themselves etc etc ie every minute of the year, not just when they are at the stadium. And some are getting a lot more than that.
Something is wrong…
Yes, you’re right of course but “we are where we are” I guess. This is only a tiny step but at least Arsenal have taken it (belatedly).
Agreed, but shameful it has taken this long for a premier league club.
Good news. It really has taken too long to arrive though.
Excellent timing from an honestly run club!!!
Seriously, can we just do away with this moral high ground notion. Super league – check; run by absolute morally bankrupt billionaire – check; throw billions around while barely paying the rank and file employees enough to live – check. I freaking love Arsenal, but I love the team for the footy! In terms of morals, we may not be as bad a those blue fks across the city, but this whole game is broken and we play those dirty games just as well as most anyone else.
What took them so effing long?
One can only hope they’ll now consider paying ALL their WSL players the salaries they deserve.
How much are the highest earners on now, and how much do they deserve?
Best advice for the wsl players is forming a union and making demands of their employers, particularly given the medical and family planning issues players have publicly spoken about in recent months.
It’s pretty galling that the players these staff members support make more than some of them will in a year in a single day. Yes, football is a short career but it’s time to redress the balance.
FIFA and UEFA should look to cap player wages across the board.
At least this is a small step in the right direction.
Incrementalism is the strategy of neoliberalism and is easy to erase with a change in government or ownership. How long will this new wage be used as pr for clubs not wanting to raise wages with the cost of inflation or through merit increases?
Yes, a good sentiment to be sure, but it’s highly unlikely that a form of salary cap for players will be introduced any time soon. In any case, I suspect that clubs would just look towards other means like signing on fees or “performance” bonuses of a vague nature to augment the salary.
Money needs to balance out across the board, but it can’t start with the players given they sit very much in the middle of the chain. Else those billions of pounds will just be sat in the pockets of the execs.
Cap TV deals and stop the money flowing from the top-down; don’t punish the players.
Yes they earn wat too much, but none of us would complain in their position. It’s up to the clubs to offer what they feel each player is worth
I am less disturbed by the ridiculousness of wages of athletes and entertainers than of the oligarchs and financiers, the hedge fund operators and property “developers” whose fortunes dwarf them. There is at least some relationship between a footballer or an actor’s ability to make people happy and his wages. Rock stars are overpaid, but their wealth does not depend on the exploitation of others. Capping players’ wages will do nothing to help either the poor or the average person; an equitable tax system where the wealthy and their companies pay their proper share (even when they are “offshore”) would… Read more »
Given we get charged exorbitant fees for the luxury of wearing their names on our backs, match tickets, stadium drinks etc, reducing their wages would mean it would be less necessary to attempt to pocket so much at the average fans’ expense and/or being able to pay other valuable staff more. They all keep the club running.
The players’ wage bills are astronomical and the biggest expenditure of most clubs.
There’s no correlation between what fans pay for merchandise, ticket sales and the players wages. By maintaining a wage cap, all you’re doing is increasing the profit for the club owners.
Besides a wage cap needs to be agreed upon by all the leagues in the world, else many players will end up joining leagues where there is no wage cap.
Good news. It’s a shame Arsenal are playing catch-up to an extent with a number of other London-based clubs, but we’re there now.
Good news but way too slow. We should be leaders not led
This is nothing to boast about.
Arsenal, and other top football clubs, should be paying well ABOVE the minimum wage to the day-to-day staff. Premier League football is awash with money, that’s why players like Ozil and Auba were each trousering more than 300k every week while at our club. Looking after the people at the bottom should have been a moral obligation for a business like Arsenal. Instead, Stan sacked a load of staff during the Pandemic. Charming.
So paying poor people a few extra pennies is nothing to be proud about. Best to keep quiet.
Fking eh!
Nice to see the Premier League finally do something about the blatant financial manipulation by Man City ( I better not use the “c” word, even though it is).
City and the Chavs have been buying trophies for 20 years now. It’s about time something was done about it.
I’m sure that we all agree with the sentiment behind your comments on City but just a word of caution – these are charges and they’ve not been found guilty yet. City had a European ban overturned a few years ago so I think it would be prudent to wait and see what happens this time before celebrating too much, too quickly. As the BBC report about this says, it will be an expensive business (and City can and will hire the best lawyers of course) and it is likely to drag on and on given it’s taken the PL… Read more »
I do realise that; however, at least something has now started.
Newcastle beware!
$12 an hour is hardly a living wage (and yes I’m using dollars here because 1, I’m american and 2, the pound is virtually even with the dollar in value at time of writing). If the club, or this group, were serious about a living wage for people trying to afford rent and bills in one of the wealthiest and most expensive cities in the world, especially during a housing crisis and energy costs crisis, they’d pay more than twice this pittance an hour. This is public relations and nothing more.
Well, the pound is currently worth 1.20 dollars, so the 12 pounds equals $14.42 , which is most likely nowhere close to the living wage in London, but it is pernicously close to the coveted $15 minimum wage.
If nothing else, converting it to dollars shows how inadequate $15/hour actually is.
The reality, for most Americans (with important geographical differences in living costs, especially housing), is that a full-time job at $15 an hour is only “adequate” if there is a second income. So, a couple with no children who each earn around $30,000 on a yearly basis (which is the way most Americans would think of it), is okay in much of the country, though not expensive big cities. A couple with two children with that income, especially if there are day-care costs, are stretched; if it’s one income, they are in serious trouble including probably food insecurity.
I’m already being paid above “London living wage” but as a supervisor I’m still way off standard employees at other clubs. Even Millwall pay £3 plus more than we do at Arsenal. Millwall pay £14ph as a standard employee.
I’m already being paid above “London living wage” but as a supervisor I’m still way off standard employees at other clubs. Even Millwall pay £3 plus more than we do at Arsenal. Millwall pay £14ph as a standard employee.
Yay?
Pretty depressing it’s taken them this long considering what we used to pay Willian.
Whilst this is very welcome news (my youngest daughter is a steward and she works damned hard with a professional cheerful and helpful disposition towards the public – unlike some of the mute fat lazy buggers there who stand aimlessly around like statues) it’s still been a ridiculously long time for the club to get up to speed with this. In my honest opinion, since the departures of David Dein, Danny Fiszman (RIP) and Ken Friar, the day-to-day business dealings in general befitting this club have been patchy to say the least and need to be improved. That said and… Read more »
Should have read Arsenal fans to pay living wage to staff with the 5% added to the cost of a season ticket 🤬