It’s too expensive and eats into profits!
It is more expensive to pay staff than not to pay them a guaranteed income that allows them to pay their bills, rent, mortgage and afford general living costs. It’s also more expensive to have to keep recruiting staff when your employees keep quitting because they don’t earn enough to live, or you cannot attract talented and qualified individuals to look after your customers, clients, and business.
We don't need to have a “hire and fire” culture to manage our costs, because we pay commission only.
This loosely translates to: “While we don’t ever fire anyone, we never give anyone the financial stability that allows them to stay, develop and build a meaningful career. Want to start a family, buy a house or have a holiday where you will be paid for time off, that's not our problem! Don’t even consider getting sick too. There’s no sick pay here.
Paying commission on performance means that our fundraisers always work their hardest.
Working their hardest, or fighting to survive? Add the stress of bills to pay, travel costs and general living expenses especially as the cost of living crisis continues and you will be amazed what fundraisers will do to feed their family (and it's not always what you or your clients might expect or like).
By employing staff and paying a living wage we need to pass on more cost to our customers.
What do your customers really value? Price or quality of service delivered by motivated and well-trained employees might be higher up their agenda than you think. Who wants to make the national press for contracting a company that doesn’t pay employees properly or offers no employment rights! No Sick pay, no holiday pay, no maternity pay, no paternity pay and let’s not get into forward-thinking policies like fertility treatment leave, pregnancy loss leave, menstruation & menopause leave.
We would need to hire more personnel to administer employee payroll if we paid them a living wage.
Great, more jobs are created(if needed), when you also pay them the real living wage, the difference you would be making to those connected families is huge. When you then factor in the Employers NI contributions, PAYE Tax, Holiday Pay, Sick Pay, other leave and benefits you are beginning to lift people out of the low wage pay cycle.
There is no good reason why an employer should not pay the real living wage or at least a fair level of remuneration for a job well done. In-work poverty is a real issue in the UK that deserves more airtime, especially in a world where living costs are spiralling out of control and ordinary working people are accumulating more debt than ever.
At The F2F Alliance, we are fighting for a fair deal for all and although we predominantly operate within the charity sector, our vision, values, and standards can be applied across multiple industries.
Find out more at: https://www.f2f-alliance.org/
Oliver Steele – The F2F Alliance
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