The living wage will be paid to all employees of King’s College, after the College Council voted for the change on Tuesday evening.

The living wage is set by the Living Wage Foundation at £7.65 and calculated by the Institute for Social Policy Research at Loughborough University. This contrasts with the current UK £6.31 minimum wage, which campaigners say is not enough to live on.

The College Council promised to reconsider the living wage annually, and to vote on whether to adopt the nationally revised living wage in accordance with inflation. This means that it is likely the College will pay the living wage in the long term.

The decision comes after months of protest from members of the college, including a ‘Wages Not Wine’ rally which gained national press coverage. The ‘Wages Not Wine’ initiative followed the news that King's had both the biggest wine expenditure and the highest number of non-living-wage employees of any college.

Second year King’s student Leonardo Kellaway said, “whatever people have said about the campaign in the past, at the end of the day, there is now no employee that will suffer from the parasite of in-work poverty. Well done Kings.”

KCSU president, Ivan Tchernev, hailed the policy change a “huge success for King’s both as a college and as a community. The campaign’s tireless pursuit of the living wage is a great example of how students can have an influence on college policy.”

A spokesperson for King’s Living Wage Campaign said, “It is a really positive step forward for the college to make it their explicit policy to pay a living wage to its staff.

“The campaign has been in place in King's for over a year and has only been successful thanks to the incredible support it has received from students, staff and fellows. We would like to thank everyone who gave their time, effort and solidarity to the campaign throughout and made this progress possible.”

It is hoped that the success of the the King’s camapign will set a precedent University-wide. Barney McCay, a driving force behind the movement, said the decision was a big step in the university campaign: “Getting individual colleges to pay living wage is crucial for ensuring that the University becomes an accredited living wage employer as quickly as possibly so that no employee of the richest university in Europe has to live in danger of in-work poverty.”

Daisy Hughes, another student involved in negotiations, hoped that the campaign’s success could contibute towards further progress: “We're absolutely delighted with this news, it's an amazing commitment for King's to make. Hopefully it will play a part in a wider movement towards the abandoning of poverty wages both in Cambridge and the UK.”

The University did not wish to comment on the implications University-wide. Keith Carne, the First Bursar for King's, said, “I welcome Council's decision. The change is very small financially and I do not think that it will have any noticeable effect on students at King's College. I hope that it will encourage all members of the College to show a proper respect and appreciation for all of our staff.”