The Living Wage Foundation is pleased to announce that today, Wednesday 30th April, one of the UK's major insurers, Aviva, has committed to pay at least the Living Wage to its entire workforce across the UK.
From today, the commitment will see everyone on an Aviva site, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers; receive a minimum hourly wage of £7.65 - an independently calculated figure that reflects the true cost of living in the UK and significantly higher than the national minimum wage of £6.31.
Since 2006, Aviva has been paying its London based staff no less than the London Living Wage, currently £8.80 per hour and in 2012 Aviva became a Principal Partner of the Living Wage Foundation and confirmed that it paid all its permanent employees in the UK the Living Wage.
The move to adopt the Living Wage across its entire staff recognises Aviva's commitment to fairer pay and support of the Living Wage campaign.
Christine Deputy, Group HR Director at Aviva, said: "Paying the Living Wage is absolutely the right thing to do for our people, our business and the communities we are part of. We have paid the London Living Wage since 2006 when it first came into practice, in 2012 we paid UK Living wage to all our permanent UK employees and now we're extending this throughout the UK to include our subcontracted workforce. I am pleased to say this now completes the fulfilment of our long term commitment to the Living Wage."
Living Wage Foundation Director, Rhys Moore said: "We are delighted that Aviva, one of our principal partners, is showcasing that implementation of the Living Wage is not only the right thing to do, but also a sensible business decision.
"As one of the UK's leading insurers, with offices across the country, this move will bring the benefits of the Living Wage to many more households. 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. The best employers are voluntarily signing up to pay the Living Wage now.
"The National Minimum Wage (NMW) provides an effective robust minimum floor for wages and has all but eliminated extremely low pay in the UK. One side effect is that we now see rates of pay at the lower end of the market clustered at or just above the NMW. The Living Wage provides a recognised benchmark for employers who are able to pay more."