by Ash Denham MSP
This summer I have made a special effort to meet with a number of employers in my Edinburgh Eastern constituency who are paying their staff the real living wage.
The real living wage is an initiative from the Poverty Alliance and the Living Wage Foundation, and supported by the Scottish Government, to encourage employers to pay their employees and any third-party contractors a wage independently calculated each year based on what employees and their families need to live on. The wage is calculated to be £9 per hour – significantly higher than the UK Government’s minimum wage of £7.70 for under-25s and £8.21 for over-25s.
In August I visited Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home, who only recently became accredited living wage employers, to hear their Director of Operations, Lindsay Fyffe-Jardine, speak so passionately about how proud they are to be the first animal welfare organisation in Scotland to be real living wage employers, saying “we value our staff as much as we value our animals”.
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