We’re a Living Wage Funder

We Are A Living Wage Funder news Image

We're very proud to announce that the Portal Trust is now an accredited Living Wage Funder.

This means that we seek to ensure that all posts wholly or partially funded by us pay the Real Living Wage and that we support and encourage our grantees to become Living Wage Employers.

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We’re very proud to announce that that the Portal Trust is now an accredited Living Wage Funder.

This means that we seek to ensure that all posts wholly or partially funded by us pay the Real Living Wage.

Having been a Living Wage Employer since January 2018, we believe all staff deserve to have a fair wage that can meet their everyday needs. It is therefore important to us, as a responsible grant-maker, to ensure all employment roles funded by us are fairly paid and that we help to contribute towards ending low pay in the third sector.

In line with this, we encourage all organisations applying for funding from us to cost up any salaries at the Real Living Wage (as a minimum) and seek to ensure that our grant-funded posts are paid at this level. We also build in ‘cost of living increases’ to multi-year grants that we award.

Importantly, we support and encourage our grantees to become Living Wage Employers themselves. Organisations don’t need to already be accredited Living Wage employers to apply to us, but we will encourage them to consider whether this is a possibility.

We are absolutely delighted to be an accredited Living Wage Funder and further champion the Living Wage movement. Having been a Living Wage Employer since 2018, we are incredibly proud to make this additional commitment towards helping improve pay rates in the third sector and understand the importance of both individual and community action to achieve this. As such, we are very pleased to have joined this growing network of funders and look forward to both supporting and encouraging our grantees to become Living Wage Employers themselves.

Richard Foley
Chief Executive, The Portal Trust

Read more about what the Real Living Wage is, and how you can become a Living Wage Employer, below.

What is the real Living Wage?

The real living wage is a voluntary, hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living. The rate is independently calculated based on what people need to get by and is updated each year.

The current real Living Wage is:

£11.95 in London and £10.90 in the UK.

These rates were announced on Thursday 22nd September 2022.

If you’re interested in becoming a Living Wage Employer or want to learn more about this, please visit the Living Wage Foundation’s Website.

We are delighted to recognise The Portal Trust as a Living Wage Funder. The leadership shown demonstrates a commitment to tackling the serious problems that low pay brings to our communities. Many organisations in the voluntary and community sectors are working hard to tackle social injustice and poverty; it’s only right that those committed to these roles are afforded at least a Living Wage. We hope to see many more funders and corporates follow the lead of The Portal Trust and the other Living Wage Funders. At a time when half of those in poverty live in a household where someone has a job, the real Living Wage is much needed by families across the UK. The Living Wage is a robust calculation that reflects the real cost of living, rewarding a hard day’s work with a fair day’s pay.

Katherine Chapman
Director, Living Wage Foundation