JHA calls for clarity on Living Wage

Wednesday 25 April 2018

Implementing the "seductive, but potentially negative" Living Wage could actually leave some hospitality employees worse off, the Jersey Hospitality Association has claimed, calling for transparency and a "common set of guidelines."

The JHA will commission a study into various hospitality roles and the benefits they receive in a bid to prevent adverse effects on employees and businesses.

The body says that the industry's particular circumstances mean that paying a Living Wage is not as straight forward as for other sectors. Hospitality staff sometimes have meals and accommodation provided as part of their package. They also often receive tips on top of their wages.

Fiona Kerley, JHA President, explained: “In order to keep costs as low as possible, which would otherwise have to be passed to the customer, hospitality businesses often feed and/or house their staff. That can provide a significant financial boost to staff, especially in Jersey where accommodation costs are high. I’m sure most people can appreciate how much better off they’d be if they didn’t have to buy food or pay rent or a mortgage.

Pictured: Many hospitality staff have meals, such as breakfast, included in their employment package. The JHA argue that this makes paying a Living Wage harder for the sector.

“Some businesses also allow individual staff to keep the tips they receive, others pool tips to share among the team, while others might keep tips paid on a card but redistribute those paid with cash. This raises the question of whether tips should be included in Living Wage calculation because our understanding of the Caritas guidelines is that they shouldn’t be."

Mrs Kerley added: “We don’t want to see our hard-working employees becoming worse off because the Living Wage paid by their employer includes tips. That defeats its very purpose. Everything points to the fact that more needs to be done to set the parameters around the Living Wage. I can’t imagine many workers in Jersey would be happy to be paid the Living Wage if it actually meant they were worse off. What we need is full transparency and a common set of guidelines.

“To help inform the debate, we are in the process of commissioning a study into the value of various roles in our trade and the benefits they receive. We will be happy to feed this information into any States analysis to ensure that businesses aren’t penalised, and hardworking staff aren’t adversely affected by the rush to pay a seductive, but potentially negative, hourly rate.”