IKEA UK voluntarily raises wages for lowest-paid workers - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

IKEA UK voluntarily raises wages for lowest-paid workers - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog This announcement from Pernille Hagild, Ikeas?HR Manager in the UK and Ireland, is beyond awesome: We will adopt the Living Wage (as defined by the Living Wage Foundation) from the 1 April 2016. This means all our co-workers across the UK will receive a minimum of ?7.85 per hour and ?9.15 per hour within London. The Living Wage is a hot topic in the press at the moment so we feel its important to explain why we have made this decision. Ikea?has seen?that the UK minimum wage of GBP 6.75?is too low to allow many of their employees to?live well and have therefore decided to voluntarily raise salaries to follow?the recommendations of the Living Wage Foundation. Why? Because Ikeas?values are not only about doing good for the customer but also extend to the employees. Pernille puts it like this: Ikea is a values-driven company. We are guided by a vision to create a better everyday life for the many people and this vision includes our co-workers as much as our customers and the communities touched by our business. Providing a meaningful wage to all of our co-workers, that supports their cost of living, is an important part of our values which are fundamental to who we are. Of course this is not cheap: The initial ?7.5million investment is a big one for us and will benefit over half of our co-workers here in the UK. We have been discussing this for the past year and the thought behind our decision is pretty simple: it is the core of our values to treat people equally and decently. We believe in paying a fair wage for all co-workers regardless of how old they are and that also takes into account where they live. Will it?make employees happier? It does however raise the question of whether this will make employees happier.?Do salaries matter? Heres what we think: Wages have the power to make us unhappy if we perceive them to be unfair or if they are so low that we spend a lot of time and energy worrying about our finances. Once salaries reach?the point where they are fair and allow us?to live comfortably, further?raises do not increase happiness. This move specifically addresses those issues and can take away much potential unhappiness for many of Ikeas?employees. That being said, its also noteworthy?that Ikea?UK does this voluntarily and out of a genuine desire to improve their employees lives.?This means that the move might have an actual positive effect beyond just reducing financial?unhappiness because?it strengthens the relationship between employees and employer, by showing that the company cares about them. Itll be really interesting to see how this plays out. I love everything about this. I strongly believe that if your business cant afford to pay the?employees a living wage, then you dont deserve to be in business. The fact that Ikea?is a long-term client of ours and that Pernille Hagild is a friend of mine who helped introduce?a similar move in Ikea?Denmark years ago only makes it MORE awesome :) Related posts Happy retail staff = more sales When it rains, the price of Ikeas umbrellas goes DOWN Happy at work at IKEA Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related