Brewer introduces London Living Wage to Edinburgh amid rising costs

A Scottish brewer has pledged to pay staff the London Living Wage – and has questioned whether there should be an Edinburgh equivalent.

Vault City Brewery have revealed they will offer a minimum salary of £13.15 per hour – which is £1.15 more than the real living wage across the rest of the UK.

Vault City’s co-founder Steven Smith-Hay believes the growing costs of living in Edinburgh need matched by wages – and pointed to the London Living Wage, which was introduced in 2008 to “reflect the high cost of living in the capital, giving a worker and their family enough to afford the essentials and to save”.

He said: “We recognised that the cost of living in Edinburgh has continued to increase over the last few years, that this is a critical factor in our team’s wellbeing.

“Our strong community of customers want to enjoy beer made by people who were paid fairly.

“Matching the London Living Wage is a reaffirmation of our core values, to reflect the world we’re living in now. Our team has been and always will be our greatest asset, so we feel it’s important for us as a business to continue building on that ethos and commitment.”

Edinburgh currently ranks as priciest cost of living city in the UK for university students ahead of both London and Glasgow.

It also sits high at 53rd in the Cost of Living City Ranking, ahead of Sydney and just behind Abu Dhabi.

Steven, who started brewing beer in his kitchen in 2018, hopes it can continue to help staff as much as possible.

He continued: “We’ve always strived to set a high standard within and out with our industry, promoting fair wages and fair working policies. Alongside improved employee wellbeing and work-life balance, the biggest benefit we’ve seen has been a reduction in recruitment costs and challenges.

“We’ve been able to attract some incredible talent when hiring because of our fair working policies and benefits packages.”