Our commitment to this will see Tritility employees receive a minimum hourly wage of £9.00 or £10.55 in London. Both rates are significantly higher than the government minimum for over 25s, which currently stands at £7.83 per hour.
In the North East, nearly a quarter of all jobs (23%) are paying less than the real Living Wage. Despite this, Tritility has committed to pay the higher wage, delivering a fair pay for a hard day’s work. Currently, the Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish for staff to earn better wage rather than the government minimum. Since 2011, the movement has delivered a pay rise to over 160,000 people, adding over £800m extra into the pockets of low paid workers.
Tritility Director, Jonathan Gould explains below why Tritility made the commitment to adopt the living wage. “Our staff are our greatest asset and we recognise the value of the extraordinary people who work for us. We’re based in an area with high levels of unemployment, underemployment and unstable employment. That’s why we are committed to ensuring that our employees are fairly rewarded for their work.”
“Our adoption of the living wage commitment, alongside our refusal to hire on temporary or ‘zero-hour’ contracts, demonstrates our commitment to be a responsible employer and making sure that we give back to our colleagues as much as they give to us. In addition to this, we offer additional benefits to our employees including private healthcare insurance, dental/optical cashback scheme and gym/wellness membership.”
Tess Lanning, Director at the Living Wage Foundation spoke about the increasing amount of businesses joining up. “We’re delighted that Tritility has joined the movement of over 4,700 responsible employers across the UK who voluntarily commit to go further than the government minimum to make sure all their staff earn enough to live on.”
“They join thousands of small businesses, plus household names such as IKEA, Barclays, Chelsea, Everton Football Clubs and many more. These businesses recognise that paying a higher wage is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like Tritility, believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.”
The UK Living Wage is currently £9.00 per hour, and £10.55 in London to reflect the higher costs. These figures are calculated annually by the Resolution Foundation and overseen by the Living Wage Commission, based on the best available evidence on living standards in London and the UK.
What about the Government’s national wage?
In July 2015 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the UK Government would introduce a compulsory ‘national living wage’. This new government rate is a new minimum wage rate for staff over 25 years old. It was introduced in April 2016 and the rate is £7.83 per hour as of April 2018.