BAH! HUMBUGS A Citizens UK Report on poverty wages in the Premier League

Citizens UK is a civic alliance of more than 350 community organisations working together to make change for the common good. In 2001, members of Citizens UK founded the Living Wage campaign. The campaign was started by parents in east end of London who wanted to remain in work but found that despite working two or more minimum wage jobs they were struggling to make ends meet and had no time left for family or community life.!The Living Wage Foundation announced the new UK Living Wage rate as £7.65 and the London Living Wage is £8.80. The Living Wage is calculated independently and is currently helping to lift more than 30,000 low-paid workers out of working poverty.!Citizens UK has successfully campaigned to get businesses, local authorities and local organisations to become Living Wage Employers. There are now more than 450 employers accredited by the Living Wage Foundation. Even during this difficult economic period, business, political and civic leaders are taking the responsible step to make work pay. !In 2011, members of North London Citizens voted to win a Living Wage at the two big north London football clubs as one of their four main priorities. Since then, the members of North London Citizens who are fans, supporters and neighbours of Arsenal FC and Tottenham Hotspur have been trying to meet with senior executives to seek firm commitments to become Living Wage employers but so far to no avail. !Chris Harrington, a member of Islington Citizens, said “I am over 60 years an Arsenal supporter and involved in Fanshare. At the Arsenal AGM on 17th October, I called on Arsenal to adopt a commitment to the London Living Wage. Ivan Gazidis, the Arsenal CEO, recognised that the London Living Wage was 'incredibly well intentioned’ but replied that 'the issue is complex and political and in any case Arsenal benefits packages are generous in market terms’. What Arsenal must be made to realise is that LLW is right, just and economically sound and is a public policy here to stay. And that we in Citizens UK will not give up and go away”!The Living Wage movement has reached all around the UK and fans across the country have been taking to steps encourage their loved clubs to do the right thing and win the race to become the first accredited Living Wage football club. In Manchester, lifelong Man City fans Nixon Tod, Chris Fabby and Julian Cooke have been working to get their club to pay the Living Wage. “Like many City fans, we have been really impressed with the developments at Manchester City in recent seasons, not only on the pitch but off it too. Improvements around the stadium have made the whole match day experience a real joy. However, we became aware that many of the staff making this success happen were being paid only the minimum wage so we decided to approach the Club through the club chaplin and find out why. We were pleased that Manchester City met with us so readily. They listened to us and committed to the Living Wage. They made an executive decision to become a Living Wage organisation and they have moved to pay their directly employed staff the Living Wage, including all apprentices and interns. The next step would be for City to extend that commitment to all the sub-contracted staff. This would affect hundreds of people and make Manchester City the leading living wage football club in the Premier League.”!This Citizens UK Report outlines the current state of play for the Living Wage in the Premier League. It includes the stark comparison between the low paid wages of catering, cleaning and security staff and the net worth of club owners, the renumeration packages of top CEOs and the top football players.!Citizens UK hopes this report encourages football clubs to meet with members of Citizens UK, local fan groups and the Living Wage Foundation. We recommend to all football clubs that they should begin the process of becoming accredited Living Wage Employers. We are excited to see which club will see the opportunity to win the race and become the first Living Wage Champions.

The reported annual renumeration package for Arsenal’s Chief Executive, Ivan Gazidis, during 2011/12 season was £2,005,000. !When asked about lifting catering, cleaning and security staff from the minimum wage of £6.31 to the Living Wage of £8.55 at the Arsenal AGM on 17th October 2013, he replied: !“The London Living Wage is well intentioned but the issue is complex and political and, in any case, the Arsenal benefits packages are generous in market terms”

THIS CHRISTMAS THERE WILL BE LOTS OF FOOTBALL MATCHES BUT THE CLEANING AND CATERING STAFF

WILL LOSE WHATEVER THE SCORE.

THE PREMIER LEAGUE HAS THE HIGHEST REVENUE OF ANY FOOTBALL CLUB LEAGUE IN THE WORLD, WITH TOTAL CLUB REVENUES OF £2.057 BILLION IN 2009-10 AND IT’S THE SECOND MOST PROFITABLE AFTER THE GERMAN

IN 2009, THE AVERAGE PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLER EARNED AN ESTIMATED £21,600 PER WEEK OR £1.1 MILLION A YEAR

THE AVERAGE SALARY FOR A PREMIER LEAGUE CEO LAST YEAR WAS £215,879. !THE AVERAGE SALARY FOR A DIRECTOR OF A SIMILAR SIZED COMPANY (£249M TURNOVER) OUTSIDE THE PREMIER LEAGUE WAS £150,876.

NO CLUB IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE, OR ANY FOOTBALL LEAGUE IS AN ACCREDITED LIVING WAGE EMPLOYER

AT THE CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB AGM ON 15TH NOVEMBER 2013, THE BOARD REJECTED A PROPOSAL TO MAKE THE CLUB A LIVING WAGE DESPITE REPORTED PRE-TAX PROFITS OF £9.74MILLION

IN 2008 MAYOR BORIS JOHNSON WROTE TO ALL TOP LONDON FOOTBALL CLUBS URGING THEM TO PAY STAFF A LIVING WAGE. NO CLUBS, HOWEVER, HAVE ACTED TO DO SO.

WE ESTIMATE CLUBS TO HAVE AN AVERAGE OF 200 - 300 PEOPLE, MOSTLY WORKING AS CLEANING, CATERING AND SECURITY, BEING PAID BELOW THE LIVING WAGE

DESPITE REPORTING PRE-TAX PROFITS OF £37MILLION, ARSENAL CONTINUES TO REFUSE TO MEET FANS AND LOCAL COMMUNITY GROUPS TO DISCUSS THE LIVING WAGE

CITIZENS UK LIVING WAGE PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE December 2013 !

Clubs have been awarded a WIN for meeting with local delegations about the Living Wage, a DRAW for making a public statement to consider Living Wage and a LOSS

for making no statement or refusing to engage with the Living Wage

+/- CLUB! OWNER(S)!

LOWEST PAY PER

HOUR (GF)

NET WORTH OF OWNERS

(GA)GD PTS

1 Manchester City Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan £6.31 £20,000,000,000 -200 3

2 Tottenham Hotspur Joe Lewis (85%) £6.31 £1,937,000,000 -19 1

3 Everton Bill Kenwright CBE (25.84%) £6.31 £33,000,000 0 0

4 Swansea City Mr and Mrs Martin Morgan (22.5%) £6.31 £32,000,000 0 0

5 Crystal Palace Jeremy Hosking (25%) £6.31 £193,000,000 -1 0

6 West Bromwich Albion David Gold (30.6%) £6.31 £250,000,000 -2 0

7 West Ham United David Sullivan (55.6%) £6.31 £400,000,000 -4 0

8 Norwich City! ! Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones £6.31 £500,000,000 -5 0

9 Liverpool LeBron James £6.31 £600,000,000 -6 0

10 Aston Villa! ! Randy Lerner £6.31 £630,000,000 -6 0

11 Hull City Assem Allam £6.31 £650,000,000 -6 0

12 Stoke City Peter Coates £6.31 £750,000,000 -7 0

13 Cardiff City Vincent Tan (36.1%) £6.31 £757,000,000 -7 0

14 Sunderland Ellis Short £6.31 £1,000,000,000 -10 0

15 Newcastle United Mike Ashley £6.31 £1,370,000,000 -13 0

16 Manchester United Malcolm Glazer £6.31 £1,640,000,000 -16 0

17 Arsenal Stan Kroenke (66.83%) £6.31 £1,800,000,000 -18 0

18 Fulham Shahid Khan £6.31 £1,920,000,000 -19 0

19 Southampton Executors of Markus Liebherr's Estate £6.31 £1,937,000,000 -19 0

20 Chelsea Roman Abramovich £6.31 £10,300,000,000 -103 0

HOW MANY YEARS WOULD IT TAKE A FULL-TIME CLEANER TO EARN WHAT A PREMIERSHIP

FOOTBALLER EARNS IN A WEEK?

Eden Hazard Chelsea FC Weekly Pay: £185,000

Yaya Toure Manchester City Weekly Pay: £180,000

Mesut Ozil Arsenal FC Weekly Pay: £180,000

Wayne Rooney Manchester United Weekly Pay: £180,000

Robin van Persie Manchester United Weekly Pay: £180,000

13.5 YEARS

13 YEARS

13 YEARS

13 YEARS

13 YEARS

Richard Poku, a member of North London Citizens and part of the Living Wage campaign, was paid below the Living Wage when he was working as catering staff for a sub-contractor serving several north London football stadiums. Richard, 19, took shifts at Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Wembley Stadium. Most shifts were four hours long and were paid at £6.19 per hour.!He said: “It’s ridiculous that people with kids have to come from so far away to earn basically nothing. Footballers are earning that much because people are paying to watch the matches, and we are the ones catering for them”

HAFIZ’S STORY: THE IMPACT OF NOT BEING PAID A LIVING WAGE

! My name is Hafiz Kyril and I am a 19 year old A-Level student currently studying at St. Charles RC College, which is situated in Ladbroke Grove, West London. I was born in Malaysia and immigrated to England at the age of 13, and since then, I’ve always aspired to aim high, get into a good university and make my family proud.!I’ve also always had a passion for business, ever since I was a young boy, and hopefully I will be looking to continue and turn that passion into a reality. My ambition is to go to university to that I can learn more and further myself. I can’t rely on my family to fund my tuition fees or university costs and I am frightened of leaving university with a huge level of debt. So, a year ago I began working with a local catering company to work shifts at football stadiums in north London. I use money to help my family when they need it and to save as much as I can for studying. !I work mostly at Arsenal but am offered shifts at a number of different venues. The job itself is very interesting and has equipped me with skills that I will be able to use on later in life. However, the employment hours are uncertain. You don’t know what shifts you will work one week to the next and even when shifts are available it usually for only 6-7 hours. This means that my income is never fixed and so in some months, I’ll be able to earn a decent wage whilst in others, I’ll be earning literally next to nothing. Due to the low wages and unreliability of the job, I’ve been prompted to take other work. At the moment, as well as working in the football stadiums, I am working at Thorpe Park, near Staines on weekends. This is beginning to take a toll on my life.!At the moment I am trying to balance studying and working unsociable and irregular hours. I usually get to sleep about 2am because I am committed to completing my shifts and then ensuring I meet my home work deadlines and doing extra revisions to be ahead of the class. I’ve had to completely shut off my social life, no more nights out even if it’s just going to see a friend. Moreover, I’ve also had to put my two passions, which are rugby and army cadets on hold/pause.!However, I know what I am going through is nothing compared to some of my other colleague’s. They are all too frightened to speak out because they are so reliant on the work to ensure their families can survive. I had a mate called David who is 26 and has two 2 year-old twin daughters. David works three jobs. He is a security guard in a supermarket on his day-shifts, a cleaner on his night-shifts and works with me at the football stadiums on the weekend. He says working at a football stadium is really long and the wage isn’t even worth it but he was totally dedicated to earning the money he felt would ensure his daughters are spared the tough upbringing that he endured. David said that he wanted to provide them with things he couldn’t get when he was growing so he works all the hours he can, even when the wages are low, the hours are long and the lifestyle is incredibly gruelling.!The Living Wage campaign is important because everyone who works should be able to earn a decent amount of money. If we were paid a decent wage, we wouldn’t need two or three jobs and we and we could afford to use the tube rather than the bus. These little things are really important because it means we can spend a bit more time with our families and loved ones. ,,

“

WHO SUPPORTS THE LIVING WAGE? More than 450 employers in the UK are accredited Living Wage

Employers and here are just a few examples of business, politicians and councils leading the way.

Cllr Andy Hull, Executive Member for Finance, Islington Council "Arsenal is a massive global football brand, based in one of the world’s

richest cities. They can afford to pay their staff and contractors a Living Wage, if they choose to. Already top of the football league, we would

love to see them top the wages table too, tackling working poverty by matching fair play on the pitch with fair pay off it.”

Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Labour Party “People who got up early this morning, spent hours getting to work - who are putting in all the effort they can - but who often don’t get paid enough to look after their families, to heat their homes, feed their kids, care for their elderly relatives and plan for the future… Just before the General Election, Citizens UK came to see me with a cleaner from the Treasury who wasn’t being paid the living wage. I thought then that if our common life was to mean anything, it

should mean that this hard-working woman, who cleaned the office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, should be paid at least the living wage.” (5/11/12)

Mike Kelly, Head of Corporate Responsibility, KPMG “At KPMG we have found that paying the Living Wage is good for our

business, good for our people and good for our communities. We would urge more businesses to consider how they can work towards this goal. Our relationships with our suppliers are stronger and we are constantly innovating how we deliver high quality service to our clients; the Living

wage helps us to do this. We have a lower turnover in staff, higher productivity and more flexible people.”

Cllr Heather Joyce, Leader, Cardiff City Council ”From my first day in the job as Leader of this Council, I made it clear that my guiding principle would be providing the best services possible to the people of Cardiff… starting with this Council bringing more than 2,000 Council staff up to the Living Wage by September 2012. These staff are doing some of the most important and challenging jobs in the Council, and we believe that they should be paid a decent salary for their work. But it is not only right in terms of Social Justice – it makes sense for the local

economy too, putting a little extra in people's pockets that will help stimulate businesses across our city.” (4/07/12)

!To make sure everyone has a merry Christmas

this year, Citizens UK is calling for… !

… Premier League football clubs to meet with Citizens UK, local fan groups and the Living Wage Foundation !!… Premier League football clubs to begin a process of becoming accredited Living Wage Employers !… All senior directors, football players, fans and supporters to remember the people that make your match day magical. !!!!

Report written by Sophie Stephens, Lead Organiser, North London Citizens with support from Jose Luis Perez Zapata !