Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to a memorable Living Wage Week. The campaign to ensure everyone earns enough to live on in Scotland relies on our fantastic network of engaged employers and supporters. We couldn’t do this without you!
Read on for some of our highlights and please ensure you are subscribed to our newsletter for a more in-depth look at the week.
Living Wage Welcomes
We were delighted to welcome the UK’s FIRST Living Wage accredited airline. Loganair are also the largest regional airline in the UK and have been flying since 1962. We also welcomed BEAR Scotland, Glasgow School of Art and Harry Gow, your favourite Highland bakery!
The Scottish Government become the first national administration in the UK to commit to the Living Hours scheme and Social Print & Copy CIC also made this commitment to secure work. SSE plc became a Living Pension employer, alongside their Living Hours accreditation, AND they celebrated 10 years of being a Living Wage employer – what an achievement!
With our most recent Living Hours accreditations last week, we are delighted to share that we now have 40 Living Hours employers in Scotland.
Living Wage Events
On Monday, we were joined online by a number of employers who heard from Cllr Allan Casey at Glasgow City Council, Michael Weatherhead at Wellbeing Economy Alliance and members of the Serving the Future project.
Lots of employers interested in finding out more about the Living Hours scheme joined us and the Living Wage Foundation on Tuesday where they heard from Scottish employers R&W Scott and LifeLink and an employee from clothing manufacturer, Molke.
As well as hosting an event at Aberdeen Performing Arts venue, the Music Hall, to celebrate their progress, Aberdeen City lit up the city centre with the Living Wage colours!
Over in Edinburgh, employers got together at the Grassmarket to hear from a range of speakers including Cllr Jane Meagher, Bridie Ashrowan of EVOC, Andy Kerr from ENABLE Scotland and Pauline Gordon from GCVS.
This year the Living Wage Scotland Awards took place in sunny Dundee, at the fantastic V&A Dundee where finalists were treated to an evening to remember. The Dundee Action Group also organised a fun “Get Framed for Living Wage Week” event at the McManus Galleries.
Blogs and Articles
We published a blog, The real Living Wage is more than a number, by Peter Kelly, Director of The Poverty Alliance, and Dr Laura Robertson, Senior Research Officer at The Poverty Alliance wrote a great piece for The Scotsman focusing on Scotland’s hospitality sector.
We are also grateful to the Aberdeen Cyrenians, Close The Gap and The Curious Gem who wrote articles for us, and we highlighted employers going the extra mile in our Going beyond the real Living Wage article.
Social Media Content
Once again, our social channels were on fire thanks to all our supporters who joined us online. We had some fantastic video content from employees and employers including Heart of Midlothian FC, the ONLY accredited Living Wage football club in Scotland; R&W Scott who hosted Cabinet Secretary Neil Gray to share their experiences of Living Hours; CJ and her adopted pup, Juniper at Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home, and NHS Lanarkshire on improving the health and wellbeing of their workforce and their community.
Ministerial Engagement
Along with Scottish Government Ministers, we visited 18 Living Wage accredited employers, and we were delighted to welcome Cabinet Secretary Neil Gray as a speaker at our Awards ceremony. We would like to thank the Ministers and their teams for heading out across Scotland with our logo boards! And of course, a huge thanks to all the employers who hosted us.
Thanks again to everyone who took part in highlighting the importance of the real Living Wage this Living Wage Week. If you don’t already follow us on social media, please do! You can find our social media icons at the top right of this page.