Community

Making Bristol a living wage city

Hear from local charity DigiLocal about their Living Wage employer accreditation.

31/05/2023

Bristol Living Wage City is an employer-led initiative addressing low pay and in-work poverty across Bristol. As a city we have recently received Living Wage City status for a further three years, enabling us to continue our work to encourage employers in Bristol to pay a good wage. Visit West, Redcliffe & Temple BID, Bristol City Centre BID and Broadmead BID are proud to be a real Living Wage accredited employer.

As part of our city’s efforts to increase people’s pay, since 2019 approximately 4,000 people have had a pay rise, uplifting them to the real Living Wage or higher. With no signs of the national cost of living crisis ending, earning a wage that is based on the actual cost of living has never been more important. While the real Living Wage will not solve the crisis, providing employees with a wage based on living costs can help provide security and stability for workers.

FIND OUT ABOUT DIGILOCAL, A REAL LIVING WAGE EMPLOYER

DigiLocal, a charity based in the Engine Shed giving marginalised young people the opportunity to develop their digital talents, became accredited back in August 2021.

Why did you become a real Living Wage accredited employer?

DigiLocal believes that while talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. We are tackling digital inequality by giving underrepresented young people the opportunity to discover and develop their digital talents. We treat all young people equitably and extend that to our staff. Paying our staff a real Living Wage is simply the right thing to do. We sought accreditation to demonstrate that ethical principle to our various communities.

What do you think have been the benefits for your business?

As a charity it was more about a coherent external image for the organisation. We know we’re doing the right thing internally, but we need to inform external people viewing DigiLocal and making donation decisions.

Would you encourage other employers – your suppliers, neighbours, competitors to become accredited?

You should be a real Living Wage employer anyway, it’s just the right thing to do. If it’s important to be seen as an ethical employer, then accreditation is the way to do that.

How did you find out becoming a real Living Wage employer/accreditation?

As a small charity reliant on grant funding and donations, we need to make our financial resources work efficiently. Our staff work for us because they believe in our charitable purpose, and we have a duty of care not to abuse that trust. We wanted to understand what was a fair living wage that would treat our staff ethically. The foundation came up in those investigations.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

If you are interested in becoming an accredited real Living Wage employer visit the Bristol One City website or email the team on livingwage@bristol.gov.uk. You can also follow them on Twitter to get regular updates on how Bristol Living Wage City is tackling in-work poverty

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