Women behind the Living Wage on International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day on 8 March is a chance to celebrate the achievements of women all around the world especially those calling for greater equality.  

To celebrate IWD 2015 Living Wage Foundation would like to introduce you to some of our favourite women. Women that have not only made paying the Living Wage a reality in their own organisation, but also provide strong support for the work LWF does:

 Ann Budge, Chairwoman & Chief Executive – Heart of Midlothian Football Club

“As a student of psychology, I learned some 45 years ago (Aargh!) that while money is a factor in motivating employees it is by no means the most important factor.

As a manager and employer for over 40 years (…Aargh…again!), I can definitely confirm that the text books and the behavioural theorists are 100% correct in this assertion.

To be fulfilled and to give of their best, employees need to feel valued; they need to feel respected; they need to feel appreciated.  Staff loyalty and commitment… one of the most important factors in any successful business… comes from being treated fairly by employers… and yes, one measure of that fairness is, of course, being paid a fair rate for the job.  It is not the only thing, but it is essential.

I know it can be difficult for many businesses, especially small/medium enterprises, to manage costs, especially in times of recession when winning business is hard and the pressures on pricing can be severe.  Every business enterprise must assess these things for themselves.  However, the business benefits of looking after your employees and treating them fairly should not be underestimated.

Since implementing the Living Wage at Hearts, we have been universally praised and have benefited in business terms in a number of ways.

• Employees who, for a number of years, had their goodwill taken advantage of are truly appreciative and are even more willing “to go that extra mile”.
• Supporters, many of whom are themselves supporting the Club financially, have been quick to show their approval.  They are proud to be associated with a club that demonstrates strong values which is helping the Club’s revenues enormously.
• The Business Community … Our hospitality suites, not just on match-days but also on non-match days, have never been busier… have demonstrated that they too are proud to support and be associated with the way the Club is being managed.  Another boost for our revenues!
• Contractors… our part-time/casual staff, who work for a number of different businesses,  are actively choosing us in preference to others.  This means we are getting the best staff and can, therefore, offer the best service.

On this International Women’s Day, it would be remiss of me not to mention the gender imbalance in relation to payment of the Living Wage.  Sadly, a number of the sectors where particularly low wages are paid, have a very high percentage of women in the workforce; and yet, so often, these women are doing jobs which are not only emotionally and physically draining but also hugely important to all of us.

Care workers, who provide an invaluable service to the community, helping to look after the elderly, the infirm, the lonely, are some of the lowest paid workers in our society.  This cannot be right.

So to conclude!  Why do I believe in the Living Wage?  Because… it is the right thing to do.

Every worker deserves to be paid a fair rate for a day’s work, regardless of colour, creed or gender.  Every working man or woman deserves to be sufficiently rewarded to enable them to provide a decent quality of life for themselves and their families.  The Living Wage makes a real difference to people’s lives”.

Professor Jane Wills, Professor of Human Geography – Queen Mary University of London | Member of the Living Wage Foundation’s Policy Group

“I have been tracking the development of the Living Wage campaign since it was launched by London Citizens in Walthamstow, east London, in 2001. During that time, the campaign has spread to the national scale and is now led by the Living Wage Foundation.”

The links below take you to web pages and files where you can find out more and explore Jane’s work:

• Jane Wills talks about the Living Wage for the Queen Mary media team in 2014.
• Data tracking the impact of the Living Wage in London.
• Data tracking the impact of the national Living Wage Foundation.
• A report into the impact of the Living Wage in organisations accredited by the Living Wage Foundation, across the UK, November 2013.
• A short film features workers, their managers, employers, politicians and civil society leaders saying why they support the living wage. Made to support Living Wage Week 2013, the film was produced by Mile End Films and funded by the Centre for Public Engagement (both at Queen Mary University of London) with the full support of the Living Wage Foundation.
• A report mapping the costs and benefits of the London Living Wage, written with Brian Linneker, for Trust for London in 2012.
• A report into the experience of Queen Mary being the first Living Wage campus in the UK, published in 2009.
• A list of these and additional publications capturing experience of the Living Wage in the UK.
• A short history of the living wage campaign
• Mapping the gap between the National Minimum Wage, the London and UK Living Wage rates 2003-2012
• A short chronology of the early Living Wage campaign in London.
• A summary of the research project completed as part of the ESRC’s Identity and Social Action research programme, exploring the coalition behind the Living Wage campaign and workers’ experiences of the campaign.
• A series of pictures by Chris Clunn, commissioned as part of the ESRC’s Identity and Social Action research programme.

Sarah Bentley, CEO- The Building Futures Group | Member of the Living Wage Foundation’s Leadership Group for the Service Provider Programme

“As the CEO of The Building Futures Group, I am proud that we are a Living Wage Employer for many reasons. Firstly, many of our members involved in Cleaning and Facilities Management are Living Wage Employers and it made perfect sense for The Building Futures Group  to become an accredited Living Wage employer. It is also especially important as Living Wage enables hard working people to be able to work to live, not live to work. One only needs to read the case studies on the Living Wage website to see the benefits to workers paid the Living Wage, they no longer have to take on two or more jobs to put food on the table and pay the bills, even enjoying leisure activities and treats for their children.

Sadly, unequal pay still exists in our society with women being paid less than men, according to the Fawcett Society, in In 2012, comparing all work, women earned 18.6% less per hour than men. Comparing those in full-time work, women earned an average of 14.9% less per hour than men – this means that for every £1 a man takes home, a woman takes home 85p. Whilst the Living Wage will not directly lead to equal pay for men and women in the UK, it is a major force for good, and as women are more likely to be employed in low paid work, Living Wage employers ensure that these women can support their families and themselves.

Living Wage isn’t just good for those individuals, it’s a common good for society – employing people on a Living Wage enables them  to reduce any reliance on social security benefits and pay tax. This extra revenue can be used by the State to pay for Schools, Hospitals and other essential services we all need and rely on. Paying the Living Wage means that everyone can contribute to our society.

So the Living Wage initiative is good for individual employees, the State and Society, but is it good for the business? In a word – Yes. It may seem counter-intuitive to think that employers who pay a higher wage and national insurance to their employees would believe that Living Wage is good for them, but it is; paying the Living Wage leads to improved recruitment, retention and staff satisfaction.

These are just some of the main reasons why I as an individual and The Building Futures Group supports the moral, economic and social reasons to pay the Living Wage”.

Follow Sarah Bentley on Twitter

Sara Turnbull, CEO & Company Secretary – Bootstrap Company Limited

“I recently chaired an event for London Councils on the Living Wage and was surprised to learn from one, that according to their research one in five of their borough residents is not receiving the minimum wage.

That really put the finding that 1 in 5 people aren’t receiving the Living Wage in perspective for me. That’s a tough figure to start with, but when you add to the fact that a further 20% of people aren’t even in the figures, as their employer isn’t even meeting the legal minimum, then the truth of low pay Britain starts to reveal itself.

Paying as little as you can get away with, is part of the culture in many industries. Especially those where margins are low and staff costs are a high proportion of overheads such as the retail, cleaning and care professions. All these industries have a high proportion of women employees, women are disproportionately affected by low pay.

A lot is spoken about in the media of increasing board presence of women or evening up the pay gap, and these are parts of the puzzle. But we hear very little about women in low paid jobs and low paid industries, struggling to make ends meet and feed their families, with little prospect of change any time soon.

This situation is not only bad for women. It’s costing tax payers money. Anyone who earns over £10k a year is paying tax on their income. A proportion of which is allocated to in work benefits, such as tax credits, for people who are working, but their income is so low that they still need support.

A lot of time is spent of vilyfing these people and digging out bizarre examples of people with lots of children or lots of horses who are somehow ‘robbing’ us all by claiming benefits.

It’s weird that very little time and certainly no headlines I have seen are focussing on the real issue here. Our income tax is subsidising companies who are not paying their workers what they need to maintain a passable existence. Earlier in my career I had a senior management role, earned the average wage in Wales and yet still needed to claim housing benefit to afford to live.

It irked me as a manager that I wasn’t being paid enough not to need benefit. It bothered me that I was paying tax to contribute to my own benefit. The whole thing seemed bizarre.

My personal circumstances have changed, I now live in London and run Bootstrap, a charity that works to create a cohesive socially enterprising community by providing workspace, enterprise support and events in Hackney.

One of the first things I did as CEO was to achieve London Living Wage accreditation for Bootstrap. Now we are committed to paying all our staff the Living Wage. All our cleaners, bar staff, security, receptionist – our entire staff team is paid the Living Wage. When I go to events now, I ask the staff if they know about the Living Wage. I am evangelical about it because it’s good business sense to start by paying people a Living Wage so they don’t have to work two jobs which means they are unable to perform as well for you.

 I am happy to be a tax payer and happy to contribute to a system that supports those in need as I have been. However as an employer, an employee and a tax payer I think the conversation needs to shift. There is a perverseness to of all of us working to pay tax, which is used to pay benefits, to subsidise employers who don’t pay a fair living wage to their employees. I’d love to see the figures on how much the economy as a whole would benefit if the living wage was adopted by all employers.

It’s more than a women’s issue, it’s an issue for us all”.