Tom White, the Coventry-based waste management company, has been accredited as a Living Wage Employer. Their Living Wage commitment will see everyone working at Tom White receive a minimum hourly wage of £9.90, higher than the government minimum for over 23s, which currently stands at £9.50 per hour. The company implemented the pay increase in November last year and officially received its Living Wage accreditation.
The waste management company, which prides itself on operating by its core values – People First, Protect Our Planet, Profit for Purpose joins approximately 150 other Living Wage Employers, just 1.25% of businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire.
The commitment reflects the business’s updated values, which centre around “the right thing to do” and one of the company’s core values is to put People First. Over the past 12 months, Tom White has supported their people by introducing a driver training programme and health and wellbeing initiatives and now has committed to providing a real living wage to all employees and third-party contractors.
Tom White is based in the West Midlands, where almost a fifth of all workers (19.3%) earn less than they need to get by, with around 434,000 jobs paying less than the real Living Wage. Despite this, Tom White has committed to paying the real Living Wage and delivering a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work.
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 300,000 people and put over £1.6 billion extra into the pockets of low paid workers.
Julian Tranter, Tom White as Managing Director, commented:
“There was no question for me that implementing the real living wage at Tom White was a high priority. Everyone at Tom White is integral to providing a successful service to our customers, which fuels our Profit for Purpose business model. It’s only right that those profits are also channelled back to our employees, and they receive fair pay for their role. These changes are just the start for us, and we plan on implementing a lot more to support our People First and Protect our Planet values.”
Katherine Chapman, Director, Living Wage Foundation, said:
“We’re delighted that Tom White has joined the movement of almost 9,000 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, Everton Football Club and many more. These businesses recognise that paying the real Living Wage is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like Tom White, believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.”
