Living Wage campaign: Seven Premier League clubs refuse to comment on employees' pay

Those who either failed to reply or said 'no comment' are Southampton, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, Stoke City, Sunderland and Swansea City

Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United are one of the seven Premier League clubs who stayed silent (Getty)

They were simple questions: does your club pay the Living Wage to full-time staff? Does it pay, or is committed to paying, the Living Wage to part-time and contracted staff?

However, eight of the 20 Premier League clubs initially felt unable to answer these questions, asked in conjunction with The Independent’s exclusive revealing the growing pressure on the Manchester clubs to pay the Living Wage to all employees.

The Independent gave the eight an extra 24 hours, and asked again. One club responded, Leicester City, who revealed they pay the Living Wage to permanent employees and are working towards doing so for casual staff.

This brought to nine the clubs who confirmed they pay the Living Wage to permanent employees. The others are: Arsenal, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Everton, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham and West Ham.

Some of the silent seven did get beyond “no comment”, but simply did it more eloquently. Southampton said: “We have taken the Living Wage discussion very seriously and we believe we have good values and morals as a club and will always try to do the right thing for our employees. We are committed to ensuring that all of our staff are paid fairly. However, we do not speak openly about our internal policies.”

We will take that as a “no” then, because that is the obvious assumption. If a club does pay the Living Wage why hide the information?

The other clubs who either failed to reply or said “no comment” are Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, Stoke City, Sunderland and Swansea City.

It is not a question of clubs not having the resources to answer. Premier League press offices are no longer one-man bands doing everything from writing the programme to printing team sheets – they are now well-staffed.

The problem is likely to be higher up, with well-paid executives who would rather not admit they are failing to pay a respectable wage to the men and women who keep clubs functioning on match-days.

Those stewards, cleaners and caterers will mainly be receiving the minimum wage of £7.20 an hour, dropping to £6.70 for those aged 21-24, £5.30 for under-21s.

Under the current TV contract every Premier League club receives at least £60m each season. The new deal, which starts next season, will ensure every club receives at least £90m.