NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGC) has become a real living wage employer, accredited by the Living Wage Foundation.
The organisation gained accreditation after contacting all suppliers that have staff working on its sites to encourage them to also pay these employees at least the real living wage.
NHSGC had already committed to paying its 44,000 employees a minimum of £9.50 per hour. The current legal minimum requirement that an organisation must pay its employees currently stands at £8.75 per hour for employees aged over 25.
The real living wage is an independent rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for organisations to ensure that staff earn a wage that goes beyond the government’s legal requirements.
Following an increase in the real living wage from £9.30 to £9.50 in November 2020, the new rates were communicated to staff via NHSGC’s internal email system.
Anne MacPherson, director of HR and organisational development at NHSGC, said: “As part of our commitment to fair pay, our staff were already paid the real living wage rates. The most recent part to gain accreditation was to contact our suppliers which have staff working on our sites, and to inform them of our accreditation intentions. We have asked them to consider increasing the pay of staff to the real living wage.”