One year as a Living Wage Employer

This month marks Branding Box's first year as an accredited Living Wage Employer. It is a small milestone for us, but part of something much larger: the Living Wage campaign itself turns 25 this year, and in that time it has helped put more than £4 billion back into the pockets of low-paid workers across the country.

Being accredited means we pay everyone who works for us, including contractors, at least the real Living Wage rate. That rate is calculated on what people actually need to live, not the government minimum, and it is reviewed every year. It is a commitment we made because we believe fair pay is the basis of good work, and we are glad to be part of a movement with this record behind it.

We were also reminded this week to revisit the Living Wage Employer Guide, which sets out what accreditation means in practice and how to keep meeting the standard as a business grows. It is a useful read for anyone in the team who wants to understand what sits behind the accreditation, and a good prompt for us to treat it as an ongoing commitment rather than a one-off badge.

The Living Wage Foundation has also put together a digital celebration pack to mark the 25th anniversary, available to accredited employers through the MyLivingWage dashboard. We plan to draw on some of that material over the coming weeks to mark the milestone properly.

One year in, our view has not changed. Paying the real Living Wage is not a marketing exercise. It is a baseline. We are glad to have reached this first anniversary, and we intend to keep it up.