Its commitment will see everyone working at Remsol, regardless of whether they are direct employees or third-party contracted staff, receive a minimum hourly wage of £8.45 in the UK or £9.75 in London. Both of these rates are significantly higher than the statutory minimum for over 25s of £7.50 per hour introduced in April 2017.
The real Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually, and is calculated according to the real costs of living.
Lee Petts, managing director at Remsol, explains the move: “We believe that businesses have a moral obligation to pay their people enough to live on, but doing so can also foster the conditions needed to create a more engaged and productive workforce, and help to drive sales. It’s a case we often make to clients when discussing their approach to CSR, and decided it was time for us to lead by example in the hope that other small businesses might be inspired to follow in our footsteps.
“As someone that runs an SME, I’m pretty proud to be associated with companies like Unilever, KPMG and other accredited Living Wage Employers.”
Employers choose to pay the real Living Wage on a voluntary basis.
Currently, only 3,450 businesses have done so, representing just 0.06% of the estimated 5.5 million enterprises in the UK [2]. According to a recent article in the Daily Mirror, just a third of FTSE100 businesses have pledged to pay the real Living Wage [3]. Paying the real living wage instead of the statutory minimum can make a significant difference to recipients. For instance, a parent working during school hours for 20 hours a week would see their gross annual earnings rise from £7,800 to £8,788 – an increase of nearly £1,000 and almost enough to pay the typical domestic dual fuel energy bill for a year.
Katherine Chapman, Director, Living Wage Foundation said: “We welcome Remsol to the Living Wage movement as an accredited employer. Responsible businesses across the UK are voluntarily signing up to pay the real Living Wage now.
“We are a movement of over 3,000 UK employers who together want to go further than the government minimum to make sure all their staff earn enough to live on. We have lots of small businesses as well as big household names like IKEA, Aviva, Chelsea and Everton Football Clubs and many more. These businesses recognise that the Living Wage accreditation is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like Remsol, join us because they too believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.”
