Compass crowned Living Wage Champion

Compass Group UK & Ireland has won the prestigious Living Wage Champion Award in the Recognised Service Provider Category at the Living Wage Foundation annual awards.

Compass secured this recognition for its leadership in advancing the real Living Wage within its own industry and its client network, since becoming a Living Wage Recognised Service Provider in October 2021.

As well as paying the real Living Wage to thousands of colleagues it directly employs and being one of the first businesses to introduce the new living wage uplift in November 2022, Compass has also done a huge amount of work as an advocate of the real Living Wage. This has seen it working with over 300 clients to move to Living Wage contracts, resulting in an extra 20,000 colleagues being paid the real Living Wage or above since October 2021. Additionally, its sports and leisure business, Levy UK, became a 100 per centLiving Wage Sector in January 2023, paying all its workforce the real Living Wage.

The Living Wage is a key part of “Our Social Promise” – the company’s social mobility strategy, that has seen it make a commitment to provide support to one million people from both within and outside the organisation, through its Mission to a Million campaign.

Additionally, before the winter of 2022, recognising the impact of cost of living crisis, the business put together an employee support package, which included the provision of free meals for colleagues where food was served, resulting in over 200,000 meals being provided a week; along with enhancing its Helping Hands fund, providing grants to support with emergency payments.

Robin Mills, Managing Director, Compass Group UK & Ireland said: “It’s a huge honour to be awarded the Living Wage Champion Award as a Recognised Service Provider (RSP). We signed up to the real Living Wage in 2021 during the pandemic, which had shone a spotlight on the extraordinary work of our frontline teams. Being a RSP has enabled us to have conversations about the real Living Wage with our clients, and we are delighted that by working in partnership with them, we have been able to support over 300 contracts to move to the real Living Wage. However, we know we still have more work to do. We will continue to champion the real Living Wage and remain committed to working with our clients to increase the number of workers on the real Living Wage.”

Katherine Chapman, Director, Living Wage Foundation said: “Given the challenges of the past three years, the record increase in Living Wage Employers is truly remarkable. The Living Wage movement has never been stronger, and in the current cost of living crisis, it has never mattered more. Nearly 13,000 Living Wage Employers have recognised this and signed up to ensure that everyone who works for them, including third party contractors like cleaners and security guards, earns a wage that meets everyday needs.”