Social Value Portal Ltd has been accredited as a Living Wage Employer this year.
Our Living Wage commitment will see everyone working at Social Value Portal receive a minimum hourly wage of £9.30 in the UK or £10.75 in London. Both rates are significantly higher than the government minimum for over 25s, which currently stands at £8.72 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 230,000 people and put over £1 billion extra into the pockets of low paid workers.
Guy Battle, CEO of Social Value Portal said:
“We’re really pleased to be accredited as a Living Wage employer. Committing to this initiative is something we believe strongly reflects our beliefs as a business of doing the right thing for our communities.
We also aim to set an example to our clients and those who we work with, of the positive impact of this kind of initiative to maximise social value within our communities.”
Katherine Chapman, Director, Living Wage Foundation said:
“We’re delighted that Social Value Portal has joined the movement of over 6000 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 Burberry, Barclays, Chelsea and Everton Football Clubs, Lush, and many more. These businesses recognise that paying the real Living Wage is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like Social Value Portal, believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.”
Notes to Editors:
About Social Value Portal
The Social Value Portal is ‘the place’ where business comes to learn about social value; understand public sector targets; listen to community needs and meet third sector providers. We aim to promote better business and community wellbeing through the integration of Social Value into day-to-day business.
We offer the Portal, an online solution that allows organisations to measure and manage the contribution that their organisation and supply chain makes to society, according to the principles laid out within the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. Our solution allows organisations to report both non-financial and financial data, and rewards organisations for doing “more good” in the community. We can measure environmental, social and economic activities and will help identify and measure the additional Social Value delivered through your project in terms that are meaningful to your customers.
We also launched the National TOMs Framework back in 2017 alongside the National Social Value Taskforce. The aim of the National TOMs Framework is to provide a minimum reporting standard for measuring social value. For those organisations (private and public) just starting out on their journey to embed social value into their procurement and management processes, it provides an easy-to-use solution that is immediately available and may be applied to any project. For those organisations that are already well advanced, the hope is that they will integrate these standards into their measurement approach as a minimum and add any Measures that they presently do not have in their own toolkit. The Social Value Portal allows organisations to procure, measure, manage and maximise their social value. www.socialvalueportal.com
About the Living Wage
The real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to what people need to make ends meet. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that choose to take a stand by ensuring their staff earn a wage that meets the costs and pressures they face in their everyday lives.
The UK Living Wage is currently £9.30 per hour. There is a separate London Living Wage rate of £10.75 per hour to reflect the higher costs of transport, childcare and housing in the capital. These figures are calculated annually by the Resolution Foundation and overseen by the Living Wage Commission, based on the best available evidence on living standards in London and the UK.
The Living Wage Foundation is the organisation at the heart of the movement of businesses, organisations and individuals who campaign for the simple idea that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. The Living Wage Foundation receives guidance and advice from the Living Wage Advisory Council. The Foundation is supported by our principal partners: Aviva; IKEA; Joseph Rowntree Foundation; KPMG; Linklaters; Nationwide; Nestle; Resolution Foundation; Oxfam; Trust for London; People’s Health Trust; and the Queen Mary University of London.
What about the Government’s national living wage?
In July 2015 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the UK Government would introduce a compulsory ‘national living wage’. This new government rate is a new minimum wage rate for staff over 25 years old. It was introduced in April 2016 and the rate is £8.21 per hour as of April 2018. The rate is different to the Living Wage rates calculated by the Living Wage Foundation. The government rate is based on median earnings while the Living Wage Foundation rates are calculated according to the cost of living in London and the UK.
