Homelessness charity Bethany Christian Trust has announced it has become a Living Wage employer.

The commitment will see everyone working at the Edinburgh based charity regardless of whether they are direct employees or third-party contracted staff; receive a minimum hourly wage of £8.45 in the UK.

Both of these rates are significantly higher than the statutory minimum for over 25s of £7.50 per hour introduced in April 2017.

The real Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually. The Living Wage is calculated according to the real costs of living. Bethany’s recent accreditation makes it one of the thousands of employers who are Living Wage employers in the UK.

Established in 1983, Bethany Christian Trust supports over 7,000 people across Scotland. The charity’s services focus on preventing homelessness as well as alleviating the suffering of people who are homeless.

Commenting on the charity’s accreditation, Lorna Fyfe, director of business support at Bethany Christian Trust, said: “This is just one of the many ways for us to acknowledge and value the incredible work done by our staff who in turn love, serve and value each individual, family and community they engage with. I am delighted that our Board and stakeholders have supported this initiative from the outset.”

Employers choose to pay the real Living Wage on a voluntary basis. The Living Wage enjoys cross-party political support.

Katherine Chapman, director, Living Wage Foundation, said: “We welcome Bethany Christian Trust to the Living Wage movement as an accredited employer.

“Responsible businesses across the UK are voluntarily signing up to pay the real Living Wage now. The real Living Wage rate is annually calculated to reflect the real costs of living. We are a movement of over 3,000 UK employers who together want to go further than the government minimum to make sure all their staff earn enough to live on. We have lots of small businesses as well as big household names like; IKEA, Aviva, Chelsea and Everton Football Clubs and many more.

“These businesses recognise that the Living Wage accreditation is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like Bethany join us, because they too believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.”