Today the Living Wage Foundation is pleased to announce that two leading UK companies have been accredited as Living Wage employers joining over 1,400 businesses already committed to ending in-work poverty.
Burberry and GlaxoSmithKline have now extended their commitment to pay the living wage to all directly employed staff, to their sub-contracted, and to their third party workforces at their sites across the UK.
The Living Wage Foundation, the body that accredits, supports and celebrates employers who sign up to the voluntary rate, started recognising businesses committed to the Living Wage in 2008.
Rhys Moore, director, Living Wage Foundation said:
We are delighted to welcome two of the UK's most successful and well-known businesses to the Living Wage movement. The move by these companies to accredit as Living Wage employers is a significant milestone for the Living Wage Foundation; increasing the number of FTSE100 Living Wage companies and cementing the Living Wage mark as a sign of responsible business. Leading companies are recognising that the Living Wage is good for business and increasingly what customers expect.
The Living Wage Foundation initially focused on employers in London, being born out of a campaign by London Citizens, part of national community organising charity Citizens UK. The campaign was started by parents in East London, who found that despite working two or more minimum wage jobs, they were struggling to make ends meet and were left with no time for family and community life.
At the time of the first Living Wage Week in 2012 there were just 100 accredited businesses, two years later in November 2014, that number had topped 1,000, and now there are 1,400 businesses carrying the Living Wage mark across the UK, and approaching a quarter of the FTSE100.
A recent poll by Nationwide, an accredited Living Wage employer and principal partner of the Living Wage Foundation, revealed that 87% of the public thought that those businesses that can, should pay the Living Wage and 58% would be more likely to use the goods and services of a company that paid its employees the Living Wage.
ENDS