Celebrating the Real Living Wage
All of the Raised In team are paid at least the Real Living Wage – including our apprentices!
From the very start we have been committed to being a Real Living Wage employer.
This has always been important to us as we believe that our brilliant team of passionate early years educators, nurturing your children, deserve to be paid fairly for what they do. The nursery sector has a reputation for being poorly paid, and we wanted to do our bit to try and change the narrative.
All of the Raised In team are paid at least the Real Living Wage – including our apprentices! As a social enterprise we look at the triple bottom line – people, planet and profit (rather than just profit), and reinvest any profit into our communities. We are one of only two nurseries and childcare providers in Bristol accredited as a Real Living Wage employer, but hope to welcome more to the club in the future.
We’re able to recruit and retain the best educators by paying them the Real Living Wage.
But what is the Real Living Wage? And why is it important?
The Real Living Wage is calculated based on the cost of living, linked to a standard basket of goods and services. This means that people on the Real Living Wage are receiving pay which is linked to what it actually costs to live. This rate is independently calculated, and higher than the national minimum wage (now called the National Living Wage). We want our team to be able to come to work and do their very best – and no one can do that if they aren't being paid fairly for their work.
The benefits of the Real Living Wage are huge! We’re able to recruit and retain the best educators, and increased local salaries circulating in the local economy provide a wider boost for other local businesses too. Ensuring that our team are paid fairly will always be a core focus of Raised In, and we want to encourage the wider early years sector to do this too!
It was an honour to be shortlisted for a Living Wage Champion Award – congratulations to the winner!
Recently we were over the moon to be shortlisted for a Living Wage Champion Award, in the Industry Trailblazer category. This was a wonderful recognition of our commitment to the Real Living Wage in the early years industry, and we were very proud to make the shortlist alongside industry big-hitters like Siemens. Unfortunately, we didn’t win on this occasion, but it hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm or commitment to the Real Living Wage for our whole team. Congratulations to Just Helpers Cleaning Agency who won the Industry Trailblazer category and of course, all of the other winners!
We’ve written about the Real Living Wage before, and look forward to continuing to celebrate and support this core aspect of Raised In as a social enterprise.
