So who cares about the Living Wage?

In January my business, Latcham Direct, became a Living Wage Employer.

However, every week we see prices from mailing house and printers which are only achievable through low pay, particularly when the production process is reliant on manual labour. There are those out there who pay minimum wage on zero hour contracts, and yes, as a result they can offer cheaper prices.

On the other hand many customers are keen to ensure good corporate social responsibility throughout their supply chain.

It is easy to pay lip service to this topic, but let me ask you if you could survive on less than £280 per week and many will say no.

There are many people working within the marketing, print and mailing industry who are on relatively low pay. The moral issue is easy to state however the commercial issue is more difficult.

As an industry we need to decide if it is more important to achieve the lowest possible cost, or is it more important that we support initiatives like the Living Wage and accept that prices will need to rise (a little) for this to be delivered across our industry.

And so I am interested in your opinions and to understand who cares about the Living Wage?