The benefits of being a Living Wage Employer

Calum: Hello, and welcome to the Leeds University Business School’s Research and Innovation Podcast. I’m Dr Calum Carson, an academic researcher here at the department, and today I’m joined by Dan Howard, programme manager at the Living Wage Foundation. We’ll both be talking about the UK Living Wage Campaign, both in terms of what the campaign is and what its aims and objectives are, and my own PhD research on the campaign and its impact across Britain over the past two decades. So, Dan, I think a good introduction to start with would be for you to give us a brief indication of what the UK living wage is and what the Living Wage Foundation does.

Dan: Hi, Calum, yes, thanks for having me. So, the real living wage is the only rate that is calculated based on what it costs to live, and the rate is currently £10.85 in London and £9.50 in the rest of the UK. So, the rate is calculated based on a basket of goods that every family needs to get by, and then that, sort of, basket of goods is taken by the Resolution Foundation and turned into an hourly rate of pay that employers can pay all of their workers to make sure that they have enough to meet their everyday needs.

Dan: Yes, definitely. I think all those things you said, Calum, are right. I think most often employers do come to us and want to accredit as living wage employers because they see it as the right thing to do. And I think it’s interesting that, you know, during the pandemic we’ve actually seen more and more employers coming to us because they’ve seen this as a time when they feel that this is something they should be doing to protect their workers from in work poverty. And, like you said, you know, they come to us because it’s the right thing to do, but then they do see those business benefits. So, all those things you mentioned, you know, increased staff motivation, increased loyalty, better… yes, better candidates at interviews. And I think the point that is becoming increasingly important is this, sort of, appearing as an ethical business to consumers.

I think we’re seeing more and more that consumers are concerned about where they spend their money and where that’s going to. And we’ve seen a lot of, yes, employers coming to us because that’s something they are concerned about, and maybe they have seen their competitor has become a living wage employer and they want to make sure they’re not being left behind and not being seen as someone that isn’t paying the real living wage. And I think that that’s going to be an issue that carries on becoming more and more important. We’re seeing lots of these, sort of, apps that you can get now where you can track your spending and the living wage is a part of that, and people can see how much money they are spending at living wage employers. So, yes, all those things you’ve said are completely right.

Calum: It’s been heartening to see that accreditations are still going up, even through the pandemic. I remember, it was in the second year of my project, the National Living Wage came in, and the government’s kind of enhanced rate, and there was a lot of worry around the country and in the foundation about whether this was the end for the campaign, but all you saw was accreditation shooting up even more.

Dan: Yes, yes, exactly. I think it was testament to the success of the Living Wage Campaign that the government rebranded the minimum wage as the National Living Wage. And obviously that was a huge success for lots of low paid workers, they have seen their earnings rise a result of the National Living Wage. So, I think you can see that as one of the successes of the campaign for a living wage. But yes, like you said, we’ve actually seen accreditations continue to go up, continue to rise, and I think it’s important to make that distinction between the National Living Wage and the real living wage because the government’s National Living Wage isn’t based on the cost of living, only the real living wage is based on that. And I think, you know, we always have to make that point of differentiating between the two now, which I think is a slight complication that that has brought in.

But yes, other than that, I think we’ve seen the campaign continue to grow and gain strength, and, yes, obviously the government’s ambition to increase the National Living Wage might mean that the gap between the National Living Wage and the real living wage narrows, but we’ll carry on doing the work that we’re doing until it gets to the point where the National Living Wage actually does meet the cost of living.

Calum: It’s been amazing to see the campaign go from strength to strength through the project rather than tailing off at some point. One of the main insights that I found through my research is through talking to workers being paid the living wage and how it wasn’t just a higher rate of pay that was important to them, but also things like a guaranteed number of hours of work a week, or the existence of an employer that is flexible when out of work issues arise, things like that that are more widely discussed under the banner of decent work, and it’s been interesting at the same time as I was finding this out, that the foundation itself was going through its own period of thinking, should we embrace this decent work agenda more fully? And that’s led to the introduction of the living hours campaign that the foundation are now leading on as well, which I was wondering if you could give a brief introduction to?

Calum: Absolutely. And I think we would both encourage the listeners of this podcast to go to the website, which is livingwage.org.uk and take a look at what organisations are already doing and who are already paying it so they can support them with their own custom. Or indeed if they are in a position in their own workplace to suggest it or bring it in themselves, to have a look at the resources around that too, and how they can become officially accredited living wage employers with the campaign.

Dan: Definitely, yes. I mean all that information is there on our website, you can see all of the living wage employers, all the information about the living wage and all the different work that we do. So, yes, please do go and have a look at the website.

Calum: That’s great, and it’s just livingwage.org.uk. Thank you for joining us today, Dan.

Dan: Thank you for having me.

Calum: And I hope you’ve all enjoyed this, and thanks for listening. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show.