Companies celebrate Living Wage commitment
AJ Engineering and NEWCo have been accredited as a Living Wage employer by The Living Wage Foundation.
The Living Wage commitment will see everyone working at the sister firms regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors; receive a minimum hourly wage of £8.45 – significantly higher than the national minimum wage of £6.95 and the new minimum wage premium for over 25s of £7.20 per hour introduced this April.
The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually. The Living Wage is calculated according to the basic cost of living using the ‘Minimum Income Standard’ for the UK. Decisions about what to include in this standard are set by the public; it is a social consensus about what people need to make ends meet.
Recognition and reward
Graham Alexander, AJ Engineering’s general manager explained why they have chosen to become a Living Wage accredited employer: “We believe the Living Wage accreditation demonstrates to clients, employees and future employees how much importance we place in recognising and rewarding the performance of our staff. Experience, commitment and hard work should be justly rewarded, our achievement of the Living Wage accreditation hopefully helps demonstrate the importance we place on these.”
Employers choose to pay the Living Wage on a voluntary basis. The Living Wage enjoys cross-party support, with public backing from the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
Living Wage Foundation Director, Katherine Chapman said: “We are delighted to welcome AJ Engineering to the Living Wage movement as an accredited employer.
Real cost of living
“The best employers are voluntarily signing up to pay the Living Wage now. The Living Wage is a robust calculation that reflects the real cost of living, rewarding a hard day’s work with a fair day’s pay.
“We have accredited nearly 3,000 leading employers, ranging from independent printers, bookshops and breweries, to well-known companies such as Nationwide, Aviva and SSE.”
