Vernon Building Society in Stockport has been accredited as a Living Wage Employer.
Its Living Wage commitment will see everyone working at the Vernon receive a minimum hourly wage of £12, higher than the government minimum for over 23s, which currently stands at £10.42 per hour.
The accreditation has been announced during Living Wage Week.
In the North West 12.5% of all jobs pay less than the Real Living Wage – around 367,000 jobs. Despite this, Vernon has committed to pay the Real Living Wage and deliver a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.
Centenary year
The building society, which celebrates its centenary next year, has been benchmarking salaries as part of the BSA Benchmarking Survey for four years.
This enables Vernon to compare salaries with more than 20 other building societies and ensure the wages are in line with others from the sector.
The Real Living Wage initiative has seen the lowest paid staff benefit from an increase in salary.
Judith Aspin (pictured), finance director at Vernon Building Society says: “Paying the Real Living Wage is not only the right thing to do, but it makes good business sense. Vernon Building Society has been benchmarking our salaries for the past four years as part of our commitment to fair pay, and it’s resulted in higher job satisfaction amongst staff, and it helps us recruit the brightest talent.
“Vernon is a firm supporter of the Real Living Wage. We ask all suppliers and contractors to check if they are paying the Real Living Wage, and during Living Wage Week I encourage other businesses to do the same.”
Real Living Wage
The Real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum.
Since 2011 the Living Wage movement has delivered a pay rise to over 460,000 people and put £3 billion extra into the pockets of low paid workers.
The Living Wage Foundation said it was delighted the building society had joined the movement of over 14,000 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.
