The right to earn at least £12 an hour for your time, energy, and skill. Agree or disagree?
Companies like Capita, BrewDog and many others, many in our own region, don’t agree. They have pulled out of their commitment to pay people fairly or have never chosen to pay people fairly in the first place.
Now, if you’re reading this magazine, you are likely to be earning a wage above the real living wage. You may be detached from the understanding of what earning £12 an hour for your time, energy and skill means. You may also be responsible for deciding the salaries in your organisation.
£12 an hour, working full time is a salary of £23,712, after tax is £19,662 a year.
The people making the decisions about salaries, are taking home significantly more, and let’s not forget about their bonuses and perks on top! Take Capita, their CEO took home £1.7m. His bonus is a 300% salary bonus and not forgetting pension contributions in addition. One person! And he won’t pay the people that the company depend on to deliver the service a few pennies!
Most people on the real living wage and below, forgo their pension as that is a privilege, they need that money to eat now, they can’t afford to think about tomorrow.
The people making the decision to pay the real living wage have no understanding of the decision they are making, only how it will affect profits and therefore their bonuses. Privilege abusing and protecting privilege, sacrificing the disadvantaged, and widening the wealth and health gap.
At £12 an hour, at full time you take home £1639 a month.
For one person it covers their basic bills, but doesn’t take into account other needs such as clothing or health requirements, never mind living a life.
As one person it’s just manageable. Add a child into the situation or a chronic health condition and costs rise considerably, you are living under the poverty line.
Worse still, if you are NOT paying the REAL living wage, you are likely to be paying people £10.42 an hour or less at minimum wage. Meaning your employees ARE living on the poverty line or below; working for you and not being able to meet their basic needs.
Organisations, business owners, directors, are all responsible for their employees and how that responsibility really does affect people and society.
Your CSR and ESG activities are irrelevant, if you are not paying staff fairly, you are not being socially responsible. Any budget allocation to these areas of the business should come after paying your staff fairly. Being socially responsible is ensuring your staff are not living in poverty. Imagine being an organisation that supports a charity that focuses on poverty and your staff themselves are living in poverty.
If your organisation doesn’t pay the REAL living wage, a basic £12 an hour, ask yourself this question:
Would I work for £12 an hour, accepting the lifestyle £12 an hour provides, would I survive?
Then why do you expect others to?
If you need further insight and support on this matter, there are a number of organisations including Kind Currency, in the region that can support, please do investigate Society Matters and Living Wage Foundation.
But most importantly, it’s about doing the right thing. Better business matters.
www.kindcurrency.co.uk