Those who know Evenbreak well won’t be surprised to learn that we are (and have been for many years) proud to be a Living Wage Employer. Fairness in the workplace is at the heart of everything we do.
So what is the Living Wage? Well, unlike the Minimum Wage, or the ‘National Living Wage’, the Living Wage is calculated on the amount people actually need to live on. When you put it that way, why would you pay any employee less than they need to live on?
I’m writing about it today because this week is Living Wage Week, when the new Living Wage is announced. Apart from clearly being the right thing to do, why have nearly 7,000 businesses become accredited Living Wage Employers? Well, the Living Wage Foundation asked us, and these were the results:
93% of businesses say they have benefitted since becoming accredited
86% say it has improved the reputation of their business
75% say it has increased motivation and retention rates for employees
64% say it has helped them differentiate themselves from others in their industry
58% said it improved relationships between managers and staff
How did Evenbreak benefit? To be honest, we didn’t, really. We have always paid decent salaries to our team because quite simply, to steal a phrase from L’Oreal, they are worth it! So no-one’s salaries suddenly went up. But we did want to encourage others to ensure their people were fairly rewarded for their work. And:
Hundreds of thousands of low paid workers received a pay rise thanks to the Living Wage movement.
