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Living Wage helping North East housing staff

North East housing provider North Star Housing Group is recognising the benefits of becoming an accredited Living Wage employer by The Living Wage Foundation as a Living Wage employer.

North Star had already introduced the Living Wage before the Chancellor’s recent budget pledge to raise the minimum wage to £7.20 per hour, rebranding it as a national living wage. The Living Wage commitment has seen staff at North Star receive a minimum hourly wage of £7.85, regardless of whether they are permanent employees of North Star, or third-party contractors and suppliers.

One of the North Star team benefitting from the Living Wage is 24-year-old PR and Communications Assistant, Craig Broadbent. Craig said: “Receiving Living Wage has made my life so much easier, as I no longer have to ‘tread water’ just to get by.

“After rent, bills and food I was generally left with very little money left each month. Now it feels like I have an extra buffer. I can do more. It makes life and work more enjoyable as I don’t have to live week-to-week with a financial burden over me. As an employee earning the Living Wage I could earn nearly £190 more over an average working month compared to being on minimum wage. This could be the difference between being able to afford life’s necessities and not.”

The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually. The Living Wage is calculated according to the basic cost of living using the ‘Minimum Income Standard’ for the UK. Decisions about what to include in this standard are set by the public; it is a social consensus about what people need to make ends meet.

Carole Richardson, Assistant Director of People Services at North Star Housing Group, said: “I’m proud to be part of an organisation that recognises the importance of paying the Living Wage to all staff. For many hard-working employees in the UK their rates of pay simply don’t cover the costs of living. The living wage remains key to tackling in-work poverty. Introducing the living wage is not only the right thing to do for our staff, but it also makes good business sense. This is a long-term investment in our people and we recognise that a well supported team, with good working conditions, is in a position to provide a great service to our tenants.”

As well as providing affordable housing across the North East and North Yorkshire, Stockton and Barnard Castle-based North Star Housing Group has a strong sense of corporate social responsibility, actively supporting and funding local community projects, in order to help local neighbourhoods to develop and become more resilient.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Laura Wood .