Lankelly Chase is an accredited Living Wage Employer and a Living Wage Friendly Funder. This means that, except in exceptional circumstances, we do not give grants to fund posts that are paid below the Living Wage.
What is the Living Wage Campaign?
The Living Wage Campaign calls for every worker in the country to earn enough to provide themselves and their family with the essentials of life.
Launched by Citizens UK in 2001, the Living Wage campaign has brought some hundreds of pounds of additional wages, lifting tens of thousands of families out of working poverty (http://www.livingwage.org.uk/). However, millions of people in the UK are still paid at hourly rates that are lower than the Living Wage.
What is the Living Wage?
From October 2017, the Living Wage is £8.75 per hour and the London Living Wage is £10.20 per hour. The rates apply to all workers over 18. The Living Wage is different to the UK Government’s official “National Living Wage”, which replaced the National Minimum Wage for all workers aged 25 and over in April 2016.
How is the Living Wage calculated?
The Living Wage and London Living Wage are calculated according to the real cost of living, including food, fuel, childcare and more. This is different to the government’s National Living Wage rate for 25’s and over, which is not calculated in the same way.
- The London Living Wage rate is set by the Greater London Authority.
- The Living Wage rate outside London is set by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University.
What is a Living Wage Employer?
Living Wage Employers pay a minimum of the basic Living Wage or London Living Wage to their woworkers andnsure that the supply chain companies and providers they work with – cleaning staff, caterers, security firms etc – also pay a Living Wage to their employees.
Lankelly Chase is an accredited Living Wage Employer.
Living Wage accreditation does not require employers to pay the Living Wage to volunteers, apprentices or interns, although Lankelly Chase would choose to pay interns and apprentices at Living Wage rates.
Supporting grant partners to pay the Living Wage
Why does Lankelly Chase want to support grant partners in this area?
Hundreds of charities pay the Living Wage, but low pay remains a real challenge for the sector.
Being or working towards becoming a Living Wage Employer is not a condition of Lankelly Chase’s funding; we will consider each application on its merits whether or not the organisation is a Living Wage Employer.
How can a Living Wage Friendly Funder help?
As a Living Wage Friendly Funder, through our grant-making and support, Lankelly Chase seeks to support grant partners to pay the Living Wage.
Our policy is to encourage grant partners to look at how they might pay the Living Wage, with Lankelly Chase’s help.
Funded posts
As a Living Wage Friendly Funder, Lankelly Chase would prefer to pay grant funded posts at a level at least equal to the current Living Wage or London Living Wage as appropriate.
If a grantee or partner does not feel able to pay that role at Living Wage, perhaps because of difficulties in maintaining differentials, or it is perceived as unfair on other team members and may have an impact on other posts within the grantee’s workforce, Lankelly Chase can:
- Agree that the Living Wage increase is applied across a number of posts in the organisation, to support the organisation to provide an uplift to a number of people.
- Exempt the organisation from paying the Living Wage for that grant-funded post. However, this should be in exceptional circumstances only and we would need to let the Living Wage Foundation know how many times this occurs.
Lankelly Chase would like to work with partners to plan how they might build a Living Wage workforce.
Lankelly Chase can help partners with accreditation fees if they become a Living Wage Employer as a result of Lankelly Chase’s encouragement.
Part-funded posts
The Living Wage Foundation offers two options for part-funded posts. Lankelly Chase would prefer to apply the second approach:
- Pay the Living Wage on the part of the post that is being funded, or
- Pay the Living Wage on the part that is funded and pay the differential from current to Living Wage on the part not funded.
Other support
Lankelly Chase will also provide support to a grantee or partner that wants to become a Living Wage Employer, for example, directing them to the support provided on the Living Wage Foundation website, paying the fee in the year of accreditation etc.
Support from the Living Wage Foundation for Living Wage Friendly Funders
The Living Wage Foundation provides funders with the following:
- Guidance on applying the Living Wage to grant-funded posts, including templates and case studies.
- Membership of a strategic community of funders that support and promote the Living Wage.
Promoting Living Wage
As a Living Wage Friendly Funder, Lankelly Chase can:
- Display the Living Wage Friendly Funder Mark, for example, on our website and at our office.
- Add our logo to the Living Wage Foundation website so that partners can easily find out about the commitment we have made.
- Share with others (including other charitable foundations) our approaches to supporting the Living Wage in those organisations that we fund.
Summary
Lankelly Chase is an accredited Living Wage Employer and a Living Wage Friendly Funder. This means that, except in exceptional circumstances, we do not give grants to fund posts that are paid below the Living Wage. We encourage current and potential grant partners to think about building a Living Wage workforce. This may not always be an easy thing to do, possibly because of funding constraints or maintaining differentials across a workforce, so being or working towards becoming a Living Wage employer is not a condition of our funding. We will consider each case on its merits whether or not the organisation in question is a Living Wage Employer. We can support grant partners to find out more about the Living Wage or gain accreditation; we can also help smaller organisations with accreditation fees.