Optimum Care Celebrates Commitment to Real Living Wage

Their Living Wage commitment will see everyone working at Optimum Care receive a minimum hourly wage of £9.90 in the UK, higher than the government minimum for over 23s, which currently stands at £9.50 per hour.

Optimum Care is based in Northern Ireland, the UK region with the highest proportion of non-Living Wage jobs in the country (21.3%), with over 236,000 jobs paying less than the real Living Wage. Despite this, Optimum Care has committed to pay the real Living Wage and deliver a fair day’s pay for a caring day at work.

The real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum. Since 2011 the Living Wage movement has delivered a pay rise to over 300,000 people and put over £1.6 billion extra into the pockets of low paid workers.

JP Watson, Group Managing Director, Optimum Care said, ‘Optimum Care, are delighted to be formally recognised as a Living Wage employer. We firmly believe in the importance and value of the care and kindness being delivered every day by our social care workforce. Being able to reward them at remuneration levels far in excess of Living Wage goes some greater distance to properly rewarding our great people for the tremendous work they do.’

Katherine Chapman, Director, Living Wage Foundation said: “We’re thrilled that Optimum Care has joined the movement of almost 9,000 responsible employers across the UK who voluntarily commit to go further than the government minimum to make sure all their staff earn enough to live on.”

“They join thousands of small businesses, as well as household names such as Ulster Bank, IKEA, Santandar and many more. These businesses recognise that paying the real Living Wage is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like Optimum Care, believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.”