Thousands of Lush UK employees will receive pay rises after the retailer announced it will pay its permanent staff the ‘Real Living Wage’. Calculated each year by independent company Living Wage Foundation, the figure reflects how much workers need to earn in order to survive in their city.
The country average is £8.45 per hour and £9.75 for Londoners, and unlike the Government’s mandatory National Living Way, it’s voluntary for companies to offer the ‘Real’ living wage.
The boost will result in full-time employees on a 40-hour week taking home £2,184 more a year. The announcement was made in Lush’s latest financial statement, with the beauty business explaining that it wants to ‘look after and invest in’ its staff.
This isn’t the first time the international company has put its employees first, with Australia and New Zealand directors declaring they will not be applying reduced penalty rates to its staff.
The Fair Work Commission recently announced that Sunday and public holiday penalty rates would be reduced for hospitality and retail workers, with Lush immediately reassured staff this would not be the case.
“On the behalf of Lush Australia, we wish to advise that we will not be applying these reductions to the rates of pay our staff are currently paid,” wrote director Mark Lincoln in a Facebook post. “We will continue to pay our staff under the existing terms and conditions for employees working on Sundays and Public Holidays.”
“No one working for Lush Australian will be adversely affected by Fair Work’s announcement today.”
The beauty retailer has an unabashed history of activism, staunchly supporting the end of animal testing, criticizing various political decisions and advocating for the end of the death penalty.
Despite its history of advocacy and compassionate treatment of employees, Lush was left of The Ethisphere Institute’s list of 2017 World’s Most Ethical Companies. L’Oreal, Colgate-Palmolive and Kao Corporation made the list of 124 companies.
To be considered, the company’s methodology is weighted in five categories: ethics and compliance program (35%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%), culture of ethics (20%), governance (15%) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10%).
Image credits to Joyce Watts and Daily Hive.
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