POWYS County Council has been named as one of more than 170 local authorities committed to paying an £8.25 per hour ’living wage’.

The GMB, which represents public sector workers, said Powys is one of 175 councils in Wales, England and Northern Ireland that will pay its workers the newly calculated rate.

Justin Bowden, GMB national officer for local authority workers, said: "GMB supports the work of Living Wage Foundation to raise wages. We will continue to make strong representation to all councils across the UK to make work pay.

"We have started to get feedback from the employers about the 2016 pay round for local government services and schools covering 1.5 million workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

"From the employers point of view they expect their budgets to continue to be extremely challenging while demands on services are ever greater."

Powys is one of one of six councils in Wales that has implemented the living wage, which is an hourly rate calculated to cover the basic cost of living in the UK, with a further two ’firmly committed’ to paying the rate which is above the legally binding national minimum wage.

The living wage has been paid to Powys council’s lowest earners since this April, however the council has shied away from committing it self to being an accredited ’Living Wage Foundation’ employer which would have triggered automatic increases when the rate is recalculated.

It has risen from £7.85 an hour while the national minimum wage for workers aged 21 and over is £6.70.

Chancellor George Osborne has announced a new ’national living wage’ of £7.20 per hour to be paid to all workers aged 25 and over from April 2016, which will rise each year after that to £9.

The GMB said council have told it the new minimum rate will need "a renegotiation of the entire local government pay structure". The GMB says it will for a living wage to be set at £10 per hour as agreed at the GMB Congress.