Living Wage drives up pay in SSE supply chain

Workers in SSE's supply chain saw their annual pay increase by a thousand pounds this year as a result of the supplier's Living Wage Commitment.

By April 2016 400 full time equivalent employees in the supply chain will have received a pay rise. 

SSE said the commitment would raise the wages of 800 workers in its supply chain by five times as much as it will for the company’s 158 directly employed staff by 2020.

The Living Wage Foundation said the findings are important as SSE was the first big company with a complex supply chain to be accredited.

Contracts within SSE’s £2.2 billion supply chain have included a Living Wage clause since 2014.

Next week the Living Wage will rise from the current £9.15 per hour in London and £7.85 per hour for the rest of the country.

SSE chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies said: “We were proud to be the biggest FTSE 100 company to pay the Living Wage in 2013 which made an immediate impact on 158 of our employees.

“But we always knew we could have a far bigger impact and help more people out of the low pay trap through our supply chain. This is the first time we can fully measure that impact.

“I hope other companies will sit up and take note of these numbers and see whether their companies could look at becoming Living Wage accredited too.”

Living Wage Foundation’s director Sarah Vero said: “The Living Wage Foundation has always been clear – contracted employees must be covered by the Living Wage pledge made by accredited companies. It would be too easy to pay directly employed staff a Living Wage – and contract out services like cleaning or catering.

“We understand it can’t be implemented overnight but it is a condition of accreditation that contracted employees will benefit over time.