INSURANCE giant Aviva has become the latest employer in York to sign up to the Living Wage.

Aviva confirmed yesterday it has committed to paying at least the Living wage to its entire workforce across the UK, including its York headquartered Life business.

From today, the commitment will see everyone on an Aviva site, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers, receive a minimum hourly wage of £7.65.

Since 2006, Aviva has been paying its London based staff no less than the London Living Wage, currently £8.80 per hour and in 2012 Aviva became a Principal Partner of the Living Wage Foundation and confirmed that it paid all its permanent employees in the UK the Living Wage.

Christine Deputy, Group HR Director at Aviva, said: “Paying the Living Wage is absolutely the right thing to do for our people, our business and the communities we are part of.

"We have paid the London Living Wage since 2006 when it first came into practice, in 2012 we paid UK Living wage to all our permanent UK employees and now we’re extending this throughout the UK to include our subcontracted workforce.

"I am pleased to say this now completes the fulfilment of our long term commitment to the Living Wage.”

Aviva follows in the footsteps of City of York Council which agreed to raise the salaries of 570 of its lowest-paid staff to £7.45 an hour last year and after which it set out to do the same for 120 casual staff as part of efforts to tackle poverty in the city.

The national Living Wage Foundation has praised York for having the biggest concentration of accredited businesses outside London.

Aviva and the council have joined York Citizens Advice Bureau, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and York CVS to launch a York Living Wage coalition.