London mayor calls foul on big-name clubs yet to pay their staff a living wage

Mayor Sadiq Khan has called on four of the big-name football clubs in the British capital to pay their staff the London Living Wage.

While Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur West Ham and Crystal Palace pay their top players tens of thousands of dollars a week, the clubs have yet to sign up to a voluntary deal to guarantee a pay rate of 9.75 pounds (12 U.S.dollars) an hour to their lowest paid workers. It would give workers just 390 pounds (481 dollars) for an average 40-hour week.

The Daily Mail newspaper lists Arsenal's Mesut Ozil as the top paid player in London, earning a weekly salary of 190,000 pounds (234,000 dollars).

It would take somebody on the London Living Wage 11 years to earn what Ozil picks up in one week.

Only Premier league leaders Chelsea have signed up to the London Living Wage, said Khan.

He has written to the owners of the four clubs urging them to help make London a living wage city.

The number of businesses in London who now pay the higher rate as a minimum salary has increase in the past year by 25 percent to more than 1,000.

"My vision is to make London a Living Wage City and that is why I am calling on our great city's Premier League clubs to join me in making that a reality. The likes of Arsenal, Spurs, West Ham and Crystal Palace are not only top football clubs, but leading employers in London. I'm calling on them to sign up and pay their staff the increased rate. It's a 'win-win' situation: they can improve staff recruitment, retention and productivity, while helping me promote the London Living Wage across the city."

The national government's compulsory national living wage, lower than the London Living Wage, will be set at 7.50 an hour (9.25 dollars) from this coming April, with a target to set it at 9 pounds an hour (11 dollars) by 2020. Endit