The Living Wage Foundation is an organisation that campaigns for fair pay and conditions for workers. It's aim is to raise awareness of the benefits of better employment standards to provide stability and a more dignified quality of life for employees across the UK.
Here are some of the initiatives that employers can adopt to make a real difference:
The Real Living Wage
The real Living Wage is an hourly rate of pay, independently calculated each year based on the real cost of living in the UK and London.
In 2001, families came together and started a campaign to be paid a real Living Wage. Since then, the campaign has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers and their families, with a wage that they can live on.
Tens of thousands of employers choose to go further than the government minimum and voluntarily pay the real Living Wage to all of their staff, including their contracted workers.
The Living Wage Employer accreditation is the mark of a responsible employer choosing to do the right thing by their employees.
The real Living Wage is the only UK wage rate independently calculated based on what employees and their families need to live.
• That’s why it's higher than the minimum wage.
• Employers voluntarily choose to pay it, changing people’s lives right now.
• The real Living Wage includes a UK rate and a separate London rate that reflects the higher costs of living in the capital.
• It applies to all workers over 18.
Why the Living Wage matters to workers...
"There isn’t a constant worry about bills."
"I feel valued as an employee."
"I can be the parent I want to be."
"We’ve got more time for ourselves and our family.
94% of Living Wage Employers have benefited since accrediting.
90% of consumers are more likely to buy from a Living Wage Employer.
85% of investors state that investment in employees is an important factor in their decision-making.
66% say it helps differentiate themselves from others in their industry.
87% say it has improved the reputation of the business.
64% say it has improved relations between managers and staff.
62% say it improved recruitment of employees into Living Wage jobs.
60% say it has improved retention of their Living Wage employees.
The rates are independently calculated annually by the Living Wage Commission, based on the best available evidence about living standards in London and the UK. As well as essentials like bills, food and rent, the Living Wage calculation includes the everyday costs needed for a dignified life, like repairing a broken boiler, visiting the dentist, or buying a warm winter coat for your child.
Find out more: livingwage.org.uk
Become a Living Hours employer
The movement of Living Hours Employers is raising the standard for what good work looks like. The Living Hours accreditation builds on the foundation of the Living Wage, ensuring that everyone has the secure working hours they need to thrive.
What is Living Hours?
Being a Living Hours Employer means providing all directly employed staff who earn less than the real Living Wage x 1.25 and relevant third-party contracted staff with:
• A contract that accurately reflects hours worked. This helps tackle practices like zero hours that simply don't reflect hours worked.
• Decent notice periods for shifts: of at least 4 weeks, with guaranteed payment (full compensation) if shifts are cancelled within this notice period. With this, employees have the ability to plan their lives and budgets.
• A guaranteed minimum of 16 hours a week to all who want it. So that workers can get the hours they need to meet their everyday needs.
Why Living Hours is important and necessary
High levels of insecure work are trapping millions of people in poverty, which makes it simply impossible to plan a life. When you don’t have work security, your mental health and life outside of work suffers. Imagine trying to plan your budget when you don’t know when you’re going to be working or if you’ll get the hours and pay you need.
What are the benefits of being an accredited Living Hours Employer?
Decent pay and secure work is good for workers, good for business and good for society; employees thrive and so do
businesses. The Living Hours accreditation allows you to demonstrate your ongoing commitment to providing decent work and doing the right thing for your employees.
It demonstrates to customers, clients, investors and peers that you are one of the UK’s leading organisations on decent work.
Become a Living Hours Employer: livingwage.org.uk/living-hours
Living Pension: Raising the standard for pension savings so employees can afford to live in dignity in retirement
What is the Living Pension?
The Living Pension is an independently calculated savings target. It is the amount your employees need to save into a pension each month to be able to cover the costs of basic everyday needs when they retire. Basic everyday needs include food, bills, clothing and the average cost of housing.
Why employees need a Living Pension
Millions in the UK face poverty in retirement. Research shows 4 in 5 workers are not saving enough for an acceptable standard of living in retirement. Today’s cost of living crisis is tomorrow’s pensions crisis – many are unable to save for the future which means they may not be able to retire in the future. And if they do, they may not be able to meet everyday basic needs.
Benefits of being a Living Pension Employer
Being a Living Pension Employer demonstrates to customers, employees, investors and peers that you care about your staff and are one of the UK's leading organisations on good work.
Living Pension Employers have:
- Higher employee satisfaction
- Increased pension enrolment
- Competitive benefits for attracting and retaining talent
How to qualify as a Living Pension Employer:
Being a Living Pension Employer means paying more into employee pensions to help employees meet this target. The Living Pension accreditation shows you’re committed to helping your employees retire well.
You’ll need to:
- Pay your employees at least the real Living Wage
- Contribute at least 7% or £1720* a year
- Ensure a total of 12% or £2950* a year goes into each employee’s pension (up to 5% of this can come from them)
*This is based on a full-time salary for somebody earning the real Living Wage. It would be pro-rated for part-time employees.
You must also:
- Be Living Wage accredited
- Offer all employees a Living Pension (regardless of age and earnings)
- Offer a Living Pension to all contracted workers within 3 years
- Communicate to all employees once a year about their pension
Become a Living Pension employer - find out more here: livingwage.org.uk/living-pension