The living wage – generally regarded as the minimum income required for a worker to meet their basic needs. But as cost crises continue to squeeze Brits and living standards wobble, is meeting even ‘basic needs’ possible for workers that received the living wage?
The Living Wage Foundation, a group organised on the principle that living wage should reflect the ‘real’ cost of living in Britain. They say that “Over a third of employers also reported that the Living Wage helped the organisation secure contracts and funding.”
But to many the benefits of paying a ‘real’ living wage might not seem obvious. If they market permits it, employers might think it’s simple business savvy to cut margins and overheads.
Naturally, this is disputed by the Living Wage Foundation, who say that “paying a real Living Wage improves the employer brand, boosts staff productivity and motivation at work.”
Nevertheless, the government has not yet reached a £12 threshold on living wage outside of London. Moreover, employers across the industry are subscribing to the rule rather than the suggestion.
Greggs, for example, is offering new starters at the entry level Team Member position in Scottish branches £11.62 an hour. This is 18p over the current living wage mandated by the government, but still further below the ‘real’ Living Wage proposed by the Foundation.
In a cash-strapped, post-Covid era that is still recovering from the mass closures of 2020, it has been a famously challenging time to operate in the hospitality sector. And managers and business owners are
But still – according to UK Hospitality, as of June 2023, the hospitality industry was worth more than £93 billion.
High profile food and beverage tycoons like Brewdog’s James Watt have used their hospitality empires to fund other business ventures and for publicly listed firms, has generates strong returns for shareholders.
Indeed, publicly listed food and beverage companies, often the largest on the market, have still managed to offer investors solid returns despite the financial challenges that have hit Britain and begun to dominate political discourse.
Gregg’s for example, has seen its share price jump 35% over the past 5 years, meaning that a shareholder has added almost a third to their investment.
This is considerably above the rate of inflation that the living wage has – at least according to the Living Wage Foundation – failed to keep up with. Such developments have, it might be said, changed the way the way that many people – shareholders, managers, executives – are living.
But what about the other end of the hospitality ladder? How do people on the ground cope with the cost crisis? And how has the way that they are living been changed?
UK Hospitality estimates that Hospitality is the third largest employer in the UK, with 3.5 million people. We all see it all the time, but there is a sense of quiet discontent among hospitality workers on the living wage.
Mary Cox, who manages a restaurant in Glasgow’s West End, says that in a Scotland – and Britain – wracked by a cost of living crisis, the living wage is failing to meet the demands of people working on the front line in hospitality:
“No, I don’t think it’s enough to live on. It depends on where you live and what sort of life you want to live, I suppose. I have flat mates, but no dependents, so I don’t have really high expenses.
“But I’m lucky to have relatively cheap rent for Glasgow. I don’t really go on holiday. It’s livable, but maybe not if you want to have a really enjoyable life.”
Asked about what she would like to see changed in employment, Mary said that there were several areas of low-wage work that needed change:
“I think zero hours is an important one to get with. But in an ideal world, they would raise living wage, that would be the most important thing, without doubt. But I don’t see that happening.”
Lili Galbraith, who also works in a West End restaurant in, is surprisingly positive about developments in employment regulation, saying:
“If you’d asked me about minimum wage and living wage back when I was in my teens, I’d have said no, it wasn’t enough. But more recently, it’s been good to see minimum wage rise, and get to where living wage was two years ago. I guess everything else is going up at the moment.”
Political pledges
Several parties have made it a keystone of election pledges over the past few years – back in 2022, the Greens made £15 a target, and as part of this year’s election campaign, Labour last week announced its New Deal for Working People.
In a wide-ranging interview, Pauline McNeill, Scottish Labour MSP, made clear her and her party’s position on employment practices:
“We’ve got to outlaw zero-hours contracts. We’ve said we’ll do that. We’ve said in the new deal… young people bear the brunt of poor employment practices. In the hospitality sector in particular, not getting the protection they deserve.
“There may be some justification for zero-hours students, maybe it would suit their studies to have a zero-hours contract. But for people who are trying to make a living…
“I know many people who are working really hard on a minimum wage, and they don’t know their shift from one week to the next and they don’t know how many hours it is. It’s utterly disgraceful.
“A Labour government can make a massive difference in protecting young workers, and I think the new deal is a really, really good start to that.”
Ms. McNeill continued by arguing that the real needs of young people will be the priority in a drive to improve the standard of living and access to housing in Glasgow:
“Young people, they have a vested interest in economic growth, the city doing better, getting quality jobs, all of that is so, so vitally important. And the housing offer is fundamental to that. The biggest question for younger people, in their twenties and thirties is what options they have for a decent home. The solutions, that means thinking imaginatively about how we can make home ownership a possibility for young people.”
Still, many hospitality workers feel that there are few real platforms for their concerns, and aren’t holding their breath for the future. As Mary and Lili both contend, there is little hope to be had looking forward:
Mary said: “I don’t think I see anything changing when it comes to living wage, I don’t see anything changing in that respect. The UK is in such a state, I don’t think any party would want to change. Even if Labour come in, I don’t think they’ll be making any changes.”
