V&A Dundee becomes a Living Wage employer
V&A Dundee has become an accredited Living Wage employer, announced today as part of Living Wage Week (11-15 November).
The museum supports Dundee’s commitment to be a Living Wage City, which was launched in March 2019.
V&A Dundee is estimated to have had a £23 million economic impact across Scotland in the first 12 months since opening. In the first year over 830,000 visitors were welcomed to the museum, 330,000 more than the pre-opening estimate of 500,000 visitors.
2018 saw a £16 million boost in the value of tourism in Dundee, which at £187 million already exceeds the city’s target for 2020. The growth in tourism has also enabled Discovery Point and Verdant Works to pay all of their staff the Living Wage from October 2019, crediting ‘the V&A effect’.
Philip Long, Director of V&A Dundee, said: “Since opening V&A Dundee has had a huge cultural and economic impact on the city of Dundee, the Tayside region and across Scotland.
“We are very pleased to receive our Living Wage accreditation, and to give our support to Dundee’s campaign to be a Living Wage City.
“The museum is part of the city’s exciting regeneration and we look forward to more companies locating to Dundee, more investment and more jobs being created.”
Councillor Lynne Short, Dundee City Council Fairness spokesperson, said: “I’m delighted that V&A Dundee has become an accredited Living Wage employer.
“V&A Dundee has had an incredible first year and it’s fantastic they are making this commitment to their staff.
“In Dundee we are incredibly proud to be championing the real Living Wage and collectively working to encourage more local businesses to pay the real Living Wage.”
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 – and was announced by the Living Wage Foundation as £9.30 for the UK as part of this year’s Living Wage Week.
Employers choose to pay the real Living Wage on a voluntary basis. The Living Wage enjoys cross-party political support.
Peter Kelly, Director of the Poverty Alliance, said: “We are delighted that V&A Dundee has become an accredited Living Wage employer. As an iconic, culturally significant employer, their accreditation is an important contribution to making Dundee a Living Wage City and to the broader Living Wage movement.”
Jack Evans, Living Wage Scotland Manager said: “We are delighted to welcome V&A Dundee to the Living Wage movement.
“We are a movement of over 1,600 Scottish employers who together want to go further than the government minimum to make sure that all their staff earn enough to live on. We have lots of smaller employers as well as larger and iconic Scottish employers like SSE, Standard Life, Barrs, Mackie’s, ScotRail, DC Thomson and many more.
“These businesses recognise that the Living Wage accreditation is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like V&A Dundee, join us, because they too believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay."
