YORK Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is adopting the new rate of living wage.

The trust, implemented the £7.65 living wage last year and has announced that from January 1 it will pay staff the updated rate of £7.85 an hour - which is 21 per cent higher than the national minimum wage of £6.50 per hour.

The decision means an increase of about £30 a month for some 600 staff.

Patrick Crowley, chief executive at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are proud to be a ‘Living Wage Employer’ and to play our part in making York a fairer city for its residents.

“Since April 2014 when we first adopted the living wage, 630 of our staff working across the whole Trust, including porters, catering, domestic and health care assistants, have been paid the national living wage.

“Adopting the living wage forms part of our aim to be an employer of choice in all the communities that we provide services for, and despite the significant cost, we felt strongly that it was the right thing to adopt the new rate and to implement it with affect from January 1 2015.

“We are extremely proud to play our part in continuing the City of York’s long history of socially responsible employers who endeavour to improve the quality of life for their workers.”

Shane Sayner, domestic assistant at York Hospital, said: “Staff on band ones are over the moon that the Trust has agreed to implement the 2015 National Living Wage.

“Over 600 staff will benefit from this which amounts to a £30 monthly increase on our salaries."

York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust employs more than 8,500 staff working across York, North Yorkshire, North East Yorkshire and Ryedale.

Other York employers to adopt the living wage include City of York Council, Aviva, Nestle and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.