EMCOR UK is delighted to announce that from 1 April 2022 all its employees are earning the Real Living Wage or above – over a year earlier than planned – to help ease the impact of the recent increase in the cost of living.
EMCOR UK was accredited as a Living Wage Foundation Recognised Service Provider in May 2021 and committed to pay the Real Living Wage to its employees that worked in facilities leased to and occupied by the company; to promote the adoption of the Real Living Wage to existing and potential customers and supply chain partners; and to submit a separately costed Living Wage bid where possible.
EMCOR UK’s ultimate aim was to pay all its 4,170 employees the Real Living Wage or above within two years of becoming a Recognised Service Provider. Over the last year, EMCOR UK developed a number of internal strategies to accelerate the implementation of the Real Living Wage for all its employees and successfully transitioned existing customer accounts to the Real Living Wage and included Real Living Wage options in all its tenders, achieving its goal in under a year.
Keith Chanter, CEO of EMCOR UK, said: “We are extremely proud that we are now paying all our employees the Real Living Wage or above and that we have achieved this within a year of becoming a Living Wage Foundation Recognised Service Provider. This really is an outstanding achievement which supports our ambition to create a better world at work and to help our employees live more comfortably, especially at a time when the cost of living has significantly increased.”
Kevin Childs, Operations Director at EMCOR UK, said: “This achievement would not have been possible without the support of our customers who have worked closely with us to enable us to pay all our employees the Real Living Wage across our entire business.”
Nick Coulstock, Head of HR at EMCOR UK, added: “We strive to ensure that we support our employees in as many ways as possible and the response from our colleagues to these changes has been extremely positive, making a real difference to their standard of living and wellbeing.”
The Living Wage was launched by Citizens UK in 2001 and the principle behind the Real Living Wage is that work should bring dignity and should enable families to enjoy the essentials of life. The Real Living Wage is calculated annually according to the basic cost of living in the UK and expressed as an hourly wage rate for both inside and outside London.
Research by the Living Wage Foundation reveals that 80% of employers believe that the paying the Real Living Wage has enhanced the quality of the work of their employees, while absenteeism has fallen by approximately 25%, and 75% say it has increased employee motivation and retention rates.
From 1 April 2022, the statutory National Living Wage for 21-22 year olds increased to £9.18 per hour and for 23 year olds and over to £9.50 per hour. The voluntary Real Living Wage increased to £9.90 per hour across the UK and £11.05 in London.
