London weighting is an allowance paid to certain civil servants, teachers, airline employees, police and security officers in the capital of the United Kingdom, London. It is designed to help these workers with the cost of living in London, which is notoriously higher than that of the rest of the UK. Its purpose is to encourage key workers to stay in London.
London weighting was introduced for civil servants in 1920 and until 1974 it was set by the London Pay Board. However since 1974 the Greater London Council and later the Mayor of London, in partnership with central government, have been responsible for setting it. In 2002, teachers from across South East England went on strike to try to force London Weighting to be raised.
As of March 2007, the London weighting is worth between £3,000 and £4,000.
In some professions, such as teachers, a different level of weighting is applied to Inner London and Outer London.
Since the abolition of the Pay Board no organisation has been responsible for setting London weighting. The GLA carried out an investigation into the issue but did not propose a new figure as such. Currently the amounts paid by employers as London weighting, or London allowance, or in some cases both, vary greatly. Further information is available from pay analysts such as Labour Research Department and Incomes Data Services Ltd.
Famous quotes containing the word london:
“At length they all to merry London came,
To merry London, my most kindly nurse,
That to me gave this life’s first native source;
Though from another place I take my name,
An house of ancient fame.”
—Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)