The Real Wage movement began in 2001 when the East London Community Organisation (now part of the community organising network Citizens UK) brought together churches, mosques, schools and other local institutions to talk about the issues affecting their communities. Low pay repeatedly came up in their meetings as issue affecting people’s lives and impacting on their wellbeing.
The London Living Wage is the hourly rate working people need to afford a minimum ‘decent’ standard of living. It is the only rate which reflects the higher cost of living in London, being based on the cost of essential household goods and services and goes beyond the Government’s statutory National Living Wage.
As a service provider operating in the Facilities Management industry, we also recognise that ‘low pay’ is not a sustainable way to operate and that if we are able to provide a fair days pay for a fair days work, then we put our colleagues in a better position to provide great experiences to our customers.
We’re proud to be a Recognised Service Provider of the Living Wage Foundation and welcome their newly announced increase of the real London Living Wage to £11.95, along with the increase of the UK wide wage rate.
We are advocates of the real living wage and in the last 5 years have more than trebled the number of colleagues enjoying the London Living Wage, particularly through client engagement.
For us, this means:
The paying of the Real Living Wage is a company KPI where annual objectives are set with regards to the paying of the Real Living Wage as part of our Sustainable Business Strategy;
We will always pay at or above the real London Living Wage for all Field Based Management and Head Office based colleagues as an absolute minimum;
We always offer a Living Wage bid in every market rate proposal we submit to prospective and current clients, and we’re proud to say that 85% of our colleagues now benefit from being paid at or above the London Living Wage.
Wellbeing forms part of one of the four core pillars of our ‘Better Places’ sustainable business strategy. We’ve called this ‘Putting People First’ and along with action on diversity, inclusion, training, development and other aspects of welfare it shapes the culture of our business and the way we operate.
The benefits of paying the Real Living Wage could be seen as being solely economic including increased productivity and take home pay. However, we choose to focus on the impact this has on the welfare of our colleagues. We share with our clients the ‘real life’ stories of our colleagues who share their experience of the difference the real living wage has made to their lives and wellbeing.