SSE is proud to be one of the biggest Living Wage employers in the UK, part of the company’s belief in doing the right thing.
All 20,000 SSE employees are guaranteed at least £7.65 an hour, an hourly rate above the national minimum wage which experts believe is required to meet costs of housing, bills, food and work travel.
Around 150 employees received an increase to their wages worth an average of £1,000 when SSE signed up to become an accredited Living Wage employer last year.
Now SSE is looking to spread the benefit across its £2bn-a-year supply chain.
That means that everyone directly or indirectly employed by SSE will receive the rate, benefitting thousands more people. The groundbreaking move would see a provision for paying the Living Wage being included in contracts signed by SSE.
SSE Chief Executive Alistair Phillips-Davies said: “SSE is proud to become one of the first big companies to pay its employees the Living Wage.
“With a workforce of over 20,000, this demonstrates that we value the people who work for SSE very highly and we’re willing to pay them at a level which shows them we mean it.
“It also shows that SSE is a company which is serious about doing the right thing. It is a matter of basic fairness that people should get a wage which is enough to cover their living expenses and SSE believes in being fair.”
Paying the Living Wage makes good business sense. Studies show that staff morale, attendance and productivity are all higher in organisations where employees receive the Living Wage.
The problem of in-work poverty was highlighted in a recent survey which found that there are now 5.24m people being paid less than the Living Wage. Both the CBI and the Prime Minister have urged companies to pay the Living Wage, where they can.
A new rate, set by the Living Wage Foundation will come into effect in April, meaning SSE employees will benefit further.
To see how SSE employees are benefiting from the Living Wage visit: /newsandviews/allarticles/2013/11/making-a-difference-to-sse-employees/