Sacha Lord investigates fair salary policy for Greater Manchester
The policy is part of discussions surrounding Greater Manchester’s Good Employment Charter, a voluntary scheme aiming to raise employment standards across the city-region through a set of criteria including payment of the real living wage.
The scheme will ask operators in the region to provide hospitality staff with real living wage salaries as a minimum. The wage, calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, currently stands at £9.50.
This comes after he accused the hospitality sector, including the pub trade, has been accused of “shooting itself in the foot” by continuing to pay staff the minimum wage.
Raise standards
Only last week Greater Manchester business leaders urged hospitality employers to sign up to Greater Manchester’s Good Employment Charter and raise the standards of working conditions in the sector in order to attract and retain staff.
Discussions on the initiative are now taking place among key stakeholders in the city region, including the Night Time Economy Office, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (GM LEP).
“The Living Wage currently only applies to employees over 23, meaning the majority of bar and restaurant staff are unfairly paid compared to older colleagues. We need to abolish this system and ensure fair pay across the field,” said Lord.
New entrants
“In Greater Manchester, more than half of part time workers earn less than living wage. By continuing to pay staff on the cheap, not only is it unfair on the workers themselves, but the industry simply won’t attract new entrants when they can earn higher salaries elsewhere."
Lord said that attracting job seekers into the hospitality and tourism sector is “critical for its survival."
“The depletion of staff across the industry is on a scale that is difficult to comprehend. There are severe recruitment issues and many venues are closing midweek, unable to open full time purely due to staff shortages," he added.
“Working in the sector is an exciting, rewarding, brilliant career, but we need to ensure staff are paid appropriately in order to sustain its attractiveness.”
The outcome of the discussions will be released in due course.
