Does 'the real living wage' really matter? Seminar
- Time:
- 18:00 - 20:00
- Date:
- 25 September 2019
- Venue:
- Building 2, Room 3043 Highfield campus, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ
Event details
As of 2017, 5.5 million (21% of the UK employees) were earning less than the living wage. The UK initiative on advocating the real living wage among employers via the Living Wage Foundation accreditation programme appears to be a successful national move with the potential to generate impact across the globe going forward. Paying employees a wage sufficient to live a decent life is aligned with achieving the broad sustainable development goals including but not limited to: SDG 8. Decent work and economic growth; SDG 10. Reduced inequalities; SDG1. No poverty; and SDG3. Good health and wellbeing. While it is perceived as ‘the right thing to do’, paying employees the real living wage also provides a variety of benefits to the investors and their clients, employers, employees and society in general. Exploring this further we present “an investment case on living wage accreditation” highlighting the current situation of the investors’ perceptions of living wage accreditation and the financial significance of paying employees the real living wage.
Speaker information
Dr Krish Vithana, Dr Krish Vithana is a Lecturer in Accounting in Southampton Business School. Prior to joining the Southampton Business School Krish worked in Durham University Business School, and Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka in academic capacity and in Sri Lanka Business Development Center and Outward Bound Trust of Sri Lanka in the capacity of a professional development trainer. Krish mainly research on firm level human capital investment decisions and presented her work on leading academic conferences and journals. Krish is currently leading two research projects funded by ESRC including the project, ‘investment case on living wage accreditation’. As a part of this project, Krish is on a secondment with Aviva Investors since October 2017. Krish has always maintained a healthy collaboration with the industry offering services to several other organisations including Aviva Investors, Living wage Foundation, Sri Lanka Business Development Centre, Outward Bound Trust of Sri Lanka and ILO project on Youth Employment in Sri Lanka.