Not-for-profit provider Anchor has become an accredited real Living Wage employer courtesy of the Living Wage Foundation.
With over 9,000 employees across the UK, Anchor is the largest care and housing provider to achieve accreditation and to commit to paying colleagues the real Living Wage - which is higher than the National Minimum Wage - for the foreseeable future.
The accreditation follows publication the Living Wage Foundation and Smith Institute’s Local living wage dividend report, which found that if a quarter of those earning below the Living Wage saw their pay rise to the real Living Wage, the increase in wages, productivity, and spending would deliver £1.8 billion pounds back into the UK economy.
Anchor marked its accreditation with a plaque unveiling ceremony at its head office in Bradford on the first day of Living Wage Week – the Living Wage Foundation’s annual celebration of the Living Wage movement.
Kate Smith, executive director of business services at Anchor, said: “We’re very proud to become an accredited real Living Wage employer by the Living Wage Foundation, which enshrines our commitment to ensuring that people working in the housing and social care sector are appropriately rewarded for their hard work. We also hope it will attract more people to join the sector to ensure we continue to deliver high quality services for residents.
“Last year, we believe we became the first large provider of care and housing to pay all our colleagues, whatever their age, at or above the Living Wage Foundation’s real Living Wage rate. We are committed to providing competitive rates of pay, an excellent range of benefits and outstanding opportunities to develop careers in a hugely fulfilling sector. We’re proudly not-for-profit which means every penny we make can be reinvested for the benefit of our colleagues and the older people who live in our locations.”
The director of the Living Wage Foundation, Katherine Chapman, added: “We are pleased England’s largest care and housing provider, Anchor is an accredited real Living Wage employer. Paying the real Living Wage isn’t just the right thing to do for workers, it’s good for business and the wider local economy too.
“In these volatile and tough economic times, paying the real Living Wage helps tackle in-work poverty and provides a vital economic boost to the UK economy. Through increased spending and productivity gains, the real Living Wage supports a high wage, high growth economy that we all want to see.
“With the cost of living rising, it’s never been more important for employers who can, to step up and provide a wage based on the cost of living, joining over 11,000 Living Wage Employers across the UK. In doing so they’ll not just provide security and stability for their workforce, but they will boost the local economy too.”
