The Real Living Wage Is a Rate Employers Opt Into — and About 6,000 Workers in Northern Ireland Are Paid It

The Real Living Wage is not imposed on employers. It is a rate they pay voluntarily, set to reflect the cost of living, and the BBC reports that about 6,000 workers in Northern Ireland are paid it. The word doing the work in that sentence is voluntarily. A wage floor that employers choose to adopt reaches only as far as employers choose to adopt it, so the number of workers covered is itself the measure of the idea's spread. In Northern Ireland, that measure is roughly 6,000 people — small enough that the rate's influence depends less on the figure it sets than on how many employers decide the figure is worth paying.