We're proud to announce that the Beautification Trust is now an Accredited Living Wage Employer.
We want to publicly show our commitment to our workforce, acknowledge their critical importance to our mission, and in doing so embody our core value of whakatauki/collaboration. We also want to ensure our team feel happy and motivated, and their mahi supports a stable and fulfilling home life.
“Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi engari he toa takitini / My success is not my own, but from many others”
About the Living Wage
The Living Wage emerged as a response to growing poverty and inequality that continues to hold back so many Kiwi workers, their families and our economy.
The Living Wage concept is very simple, yet such a powerful alternative – it’s the hourly wage a worker needs to pay for the necessities of life and participate as an active citizen in the community. It reflects the basic expenses of workers and their families such as food, transportation, housing and childcare, and is calculated independently each year by the New Zealand Family Centre Social Policy Unit.
The Living Wage rate is voluntary and is currently $22.10 per hour.
The first Living Wage campaign was launched in 2012 in Auckland and in Wellington followed by other local networks around the country. Supporting organisations joined forces around a statement of commitment to a Living Wage. More than 200 groups agreed:
"A living wage is the income necessary to provide workers and their families with the basic necessities of life. A living wage will enable workers to live with dignity and to participate as active citizens in society. We call upon the Government, employers and society as a whole to strive for a living wage for all households as a necessary and important step in the reduction of poverty in New Zealand.”
The Living Wage Movement is not aligned to any political party but seeks to influence those who have the power to change the lives of workers and their families. The focus of attention is where incomes are funded through public money, the large employers who can afford to pay a Living Wage. Many small and ethical employers choose to pay a Living Wage and have become accredited.