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Benefits of paying the Living Wage

Everyone knows about the National Minimum Wage. It’s compulsory and the rate depends on your age, if you are under 25 years of age it might range from £8.21 an hour for an apprentice to £6.95 if you aged between 21 and 24.

What is a Living Wage?

The Living Wage is the amount of money that employees need to live comfortably, relatively free of the burdens of worrying about making ends meet. Nothing is more de-moralising for staff than being employed full-time job, working hard for their employer, and still not being able to meet the basics of life like rent, food, and utilities.

The new Living Wage, (£10.75/h inside London, £9.30p/h outside), allows employees to pay their bills and live reasonably comfortably. It is the amount that working Brits need to make in order to both survive and thrive – something we believe everyone should have.

Here are the top ten benefits of paying the Living Wage:

Better employee retention – Every new employee costs you hundreds or thousands of pounds to train and prepare to work for you. Every time you lose an employee, you’re wasting that money. It would be better invested in keeping the staff you have than hiring and training new people all the time.
Improved morale – Happy employees are better employees. They show up for work on time and do a better job all around.
Decreased employee sick time – Better paid employees tend to call out sick less often. Because they feel they’re being taken care of by their employer, they tend to make more of an effort to be at work.
Greater customer satisfaction – Your happier, better-paid employees tend to take better care of your customers or the products that they manufacture.
More business referrals – Word of mouth is still one of the most important marketing channels for most businesses, and trust is the most crucial factor when a customer decides whether to refer a friend or colleague. Paying the Living Wage will help to develop trust with your customers as it makes a confident statement about the type of organisation you are – ethical, caring and forward-thinking.
Customer loyalty – Customers are far more likely to return to a business that pays its employees the Living Wage than one that doesn’t. As consumers, we are becoming more and more aware of our responsibility to society as a whole, and that leaves us uncomfortable if we feel that we are supporting businesses who’s employees who aren’t able to make a decent living.
Improved productivity – Employees take greater pride in their work when they’re paid a wage that allows them to focus on the job at hand, as opposed to being worried about how they are going to make ends meet that week. That means greater productivity, which in itself goes a long way to help pay for the extra hourly cost.
Greater innovation – Even businesses that have been around for 200 years need to constantly innovate in order to compete. Happy employees will look for ways to save their employer time and money simply because they care more.
A better reputation – Businesses that commit to paying the Living Wage enjoys a better overall reputation among consumers and even competitors.
Pride in your business – As a business owner, knowing that your staff goes home each night to enough money to thrive can give you a sense of pride. You’re making the world a better place.

MAR FM offers their clients the ability to pay the Living Wage to the MAR employees that work for them. In facilities maintenance, the paradigm is to pay employees as little as possible. At MAR we encourage our clients to pay the highest wages possible, whilst remaining competitive. Ultimately we know that for our clients, the bottom line, is their financial bottom line. But we also know you don’t want to compromise on the quality of service that is delivered. That is why we place great emphasis on avoiding cutting corners when it comes to our greatest asset – our staff.

MAR works with clients that want to pay their facilities management team the Living Wage by guaranteeing that the increased wage is passed directly on to the employees, not retained by the company.

Please contact us today to see how working with MAR Facilities Management can create a new paradigm for facilities services staff, guaranteeing that their work will pay for a successful, happy lives.