Living Wage Scotland are pleased to announce that McAlpine & Co Ltd, has been recognised as an accredited Living Wage employer.
Their Living Wage commitment confirms everyone working at McAlpine, regardless of whether they are direct employees or third-party contracted staff, receive, at least, a minimum hourly wage of £8.75. This rate is significantly higher than the statutory minimum for over 25s of £7.83 per hour introduced in April 2018.
The real Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually. The Living Wage is calculated according to the real costs of living.
Graham McAlpine, Director of McAlpine & Co Ltd said:
“Ever since our formation 111 years ago we have rewarded our staff for their hard work and fundamentally believe that people should have a right to a decent standard of living. Because of this we have not had to make any changes to our remuneration policy as our rates are substantially higher than the Living Wage. We sought official accreditation because many companies in our industry have moved their manufacturing facilities abroad to take advantage of cheap labour rates, whilst we remain steadfastly committed to supporting local employment. We’ve proved that it’s possible to remain the market leader in your field, over a prolonged period, whilst still paying people fairly and we sincerely hope that our announcement will set an example to other employers who may be thinking of seeking accreditation.”
Employers choose to pay the real Living Wage on a voluntary basis. The Living Wage enjoys cross-party political support.
Peter Kelly, Director of the Poverty Alliance said:
“The real Living Wage is one of the key tools at our disposal to help make an impact on levels of in-work poverty in Scotland. There is a strong business case for paying the Living Wage; but crucially it allows those in work to become more included in society, better provide for their families, and feel that their value and hard work is recognised by their employer. We are delighted to congratulate McAlpine on becoming a Living Wage employer. I hope more organisations follow their lead by becoming accredited”.
Julie McGahan, Living Wage Scotland Manager said:
“We are delighted to welcome McAlpine to the Living Wage movement.We are a movement of over 1200 Scottish employers who together want to go further than the government minimum to make sure that all their staff earn enough to live on. We have lots of smaller employers as well as larger and iconic Scottish employers like SSE, Standard Life, Barrs, Mackies, ScotRail, D.C. Thomson and many more. These businesses recognise that the Living Wage accreditation is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like McAlpine join us, because they too believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.”
McAlpine started manufacturing plumbing products in 1907 and in 1957 was the first UK company to manufacture Plastic Traps. McAlpine, still a privately owned family company, continues to manufacture in the UK an exceptionally wide range of plumbing products of the highest quality including ranges of:
- Traps
- Shower and floor gullies
- Waste pipe and fittings
- Overflow pipe and fittings
- WC connectors
- Air admittance valves
- Waste outlet fittings
McAlpine also exports specifically designed products for use in over 90 countries worldwide. As market leader, McAlpine has a reputation for producing innovative products determined by market conditions and customer demand.