Our commitment to the REAL Living Wage

We have been officially recognised as a REAL Living Wage Employer. 

Our Living Wage commitment will see our team and the people working with us receiving a minimum hourly wage of £9.00 – which is significantly higher than the government minimum for over 25s, which currently stands at £7.83 per hour.

The real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum. Since 2011 the Living Wage movement has delivered a pay rise to over 160,000 people and put over £800m extra into the pockets of low paid workers.

We are based in the South West, a region where over a fifth of all jobs (21%) pay less than the real Living Wage – which works out to be around 463,000 jobs. We have always paid the real living wage as we believe that paying people fairly is important, but we are delighted that we are able to publicly commit to delivering a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.

“We always have been a real living wage employer, but we wanted to join the national conversation about paying people fairly and be an example to the sector. I’m happy to publicly declare this position for Rising and to put us in the context of other businesses doing great work!” – Jess Bunyan, Rising’s Development Manager.  

“It means that people can focus on their work – it takes away the stress of worrying about living and you can focus on what you do. Instead of working to live, you can work to create change” – Asiya Sutton, Rising’s Data Researcher. 

Tess Lanning, Director, Living Wage Foundation said: “We’re delighted that Rising has joined the movement of over 4,700 responsible employers across the UK who voluntarily commit to go further than the government minimum to make sure all their staff earn enough to live on.

“They join thousands of small businesses, as well as household names such as IKEA, Heathrow Airport, Barclays, Chelsea and Everton Football Clubs and many more. These businesses recognise that paying the real Living Wage is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like Rising, believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.”

We hope that many other organisations follow suit and extend this to their staff, freelancers, contributors and participants. It makes all the difference – and it’s an opportunity to put yourself on the map.

To find out more about the Real Living Wage and how you can get accredited, click here.