Did you know that Make Me A Plan is proud to be a living wage employer? I’m guessing you keen Fans of Plans will know this as Principal Planner Anna Pascoe is a strong advocate of all things wellbeing. 

What is the Living Wage?

The Real Living Wage Foundation is now in its 20th year independently-calculates the living wage based on what people need to get by. That's why they encourage all employers that can afford to do so to ensure their employees earn a wage that meets the costs of living, not just the government minimum.

Being able to pay your employees really is one of many things that contribute to your workforces’ wellbeing. If they can come to work knowing that what they are being paid is not only fair, but also means that they can keep a roof over their heads, keep fed and warm. Having anxieties outside of the workplace will impact on your work, so by looking at all aspects of employee wellbeing will have a positive impact on their productivity. 

Feeling safe

For an employee to feel engaged and be productive, they need to have their basic security needs met – one of these is financial security.  Paying above the living wage can increase motivation and retention of employees. It can also improve relationships between managers and their teams. 

Pay and conditions are always contentious issues in workplaces. We have seen this recently, not only with the public sector, where many areas have been subject to pay freezes over many years, but also in the private sector.  It is largely with frontline roles that can be categorised as ’unskilled’ (I hate that term!) that tend to bear the brunt of underpayment. There are many jobs where you may not require a high academic qualification to do the role, but to be good at what you do may require soft skills that are not measurable on a scale of academic A* to U. 

Culture and salary

Frontline employees are at the heart of the culture and need to be remunerated appropriately. There have been some interesting instances of businesses recognising this and implanting an initiative where the top earner in the organisation (usually the CEO) will not earn a salary above a certain percentage of their lowest paid employee.  Brewdog (a living wage employer) is one organisation that did this ensuring that no one is paid more than seven times the entry-level wage. 

Think about what you can do

Have a look at the Real Living Wage Foundation and see if it is something that your organisation could sign up to be - it’s a great step towards making your employees feel valued, knowing that your organisation will be tracking this salary increase year on year. 

P.s.: If you want some other free tips for your personal life, check out the Self Series blog – out fortnightly on Tuesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Wellbeing Expert, Tamsin Cain. Browse the latest edition here:https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/fun-things-to-do-in-autumn-months/