AGE OF THE
LIVING WAGE

Paying a living wage is key to a fairer
future says Rachael Steed

The Big Idea:

Over a billion workers globally earn less than what’s needed for a decent standard of living, making the push for a universal Living Wage more urgent than ever. Finlays is tackling this challenge head-on with a structured, collaborative approach to ensure fair pay across its operations and supply chain by 2030.

AGE OF THE LIVING WAGE

Now, more than ever, financial insecurity is a global challenge. The UN Global Compact estimates that over a billion working people worldwide – a third of workers – earn less than needed to afford a decent standard of living [Living Wage | Forward Faster].

The impact of financial insecurity is wide reaching. Not only does it impact on the individual, but it is also linked with societal issues such as gender inequality, poor health, crime and political instability. It is for these reasons that the United Nations has identified payment of the living wage as a human right.

The Living Wage is about providing workers with a fair wage and ensuring the right to work and live with dignity. The provision of a living wage provides workers with a path out of poverty and by extension, helps to address the societal impacts associated with financial insecurity.

Finlays’ commitment to the living wage

As a member of the UN Global Compact, Finlays is committed to protecting and promoting Human Rights within our business and wider supply chain. This commitment is at the heart of the Our People Pillar of our Sustainable Future 2030 strategy, which includes workstreams dedicated to both Human Rights and the living wage.

Our living wage objectives are ambitious. Finlays has committed to paying all direct employees the relevant living wage for their location by 2030. We are also committed to working closely with our suppliers and customers to raise awareness of the living wage within our wider supply chain. Both these objectives are aligned with the UN Global Compact’s Forward Faster programme, which is designed to drive progress against Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With the foundations now in place, we are in a good position to start delivering our living wage objectives.”

Addressing the challenges

Becoming a global living wage employer is not without its challenges. Currently, there is no universal living wage standard or global living wage accrediting body. Given that the aim of the living wage is to ensure that the worker can achieve a decent standard of living for the location in which they live, calculation methodologies also need to be adapted to reflect the wider social landscape – for example, average family size, cost of goods, and social infrastructure.

To address these challenges, Finlays has worked collaboratively with internal stakeholders and external organisations to develop a robust and sustainable approach to delivering our living wage ambitions.

Our Approach

We understand that becoming a living wage employer is about more than just hitting a number – it’s about doing the right thing for our people in the right way.

Using the UN Global Compact’s 10-Step Living Wage Implementation as a foundation, we have sought to create the strategy, policy and processes required to deliver our Living Wage programme in a structured and transparent manner.

From the outset, we recognized the importance of bringing subject matter experts to the table. In addition to consulting with global living wage organisations, we have worked closely with our business units to build our understanding of the living wage position in the regions in which we operate.

The outcome of these discussions is a framework and toolkit that aligns with living wage best practices, whilst also recognizing the varied nature of our business units. Within this process, we have also recognized the importance of embedding living wage discussions within our existing processes, for example, by incorporating living wage actions into our data reporting and budgeting cycles.

Looking forward

With the foundations now in place, we are in a good position to start delivering our living wage objectives. As a first step, we carried out baseline living wage assessments across 20 locations in January 2025. To do this, we worked with each of our business units to identify the correct living wage benchmark for their location and, by extension, the relevant calculation methodology.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that of the 1,538 employees included in our baseline assessments, over 70% are being paid the relevant living wage for their location. We are currently working with each of our business units to refine our baseline assessments and to develop roadmaps, wage plans, and agree targets for objective delivery. Going forward, we will be carrying our annual living wage assessments to ensure that we are on track to deliver our global objectives.

We are also challenging ourselves to go one step further. In support of our commitment to build living wage awareness within our supply chain, work is underway to develop our understanding of this complex issue and the role we can play in building living wage awareness.

As we continue our living wage journey, we are committed to keeping our value of Acting for the Long Term at front of mind – doing the right thing today for a better tomorrow.

Rachael Steed

Head of HR