UNUSUALLY for a business in the hospitality and entertainment industry, Fore Play Crazy Golf has paid the real living wage from the outset. The experiential start-up opened its doors in Glasgow in September this year to tap into the increasing demand for alternative nights out.
Based in Kinning Park, it offers crazy golf, drinks and street food and employs six people with a further three employed via the food vendor The Prague Shack.
As well as paying the real living wage, the start-up’s founders, Kasia Majkut and Craig Neilson, also refuse to use zero hour contracts.
“It was important to both of us that staff are paid fairly and treated with respect whilst they are at their place of work,” said Neilson.
“Hospitality is notorious for paying staff the bare minimum and we believe that everyone is entitled to earn enough so they don’t have to live in fear of choosing between rent and food. The physical and mental benefits of paying above the minimum wage are well documented but it is a moral obligation to our people that drives us. For many of the roles, the hours are unsociable and can be physically tough. Employees deserve better. We are really new to the industry but we believe that the experiential product we have is something people are willing to pay for and it is only right that the people who help to make the experience a fantastic one are paid fairly.”
Majkut agreed that the hospitality industry had to do better with regard to wages than is currently happening. She pointed out that many employers paid low wages in the belief that their staff would make additional income through tips but this was not the case.
“In a generally low tipping culture this cannot be a reasonable attitude to maintain,” she said.
Majkut added that it was important for people to have a steady income as stability was key. “Tips are not a stable and secure form of income,” she said. “Mortgages and other forms of credit look at base earnings so paying the living wage allows our staff to make sensible long term plans.”
Employee Christian O’Brien said: “Being paid the living wage means I can afford to live, pay the mortgage, buy good nutritional food and look after my dog among many other things.”
Arturs Apsitis, another member of staff, said that being paid the real living wage meant he pay his high Glasgow rent and have a social life.
“It also means I have the opportunity to live alone which is extremely important to me,” he said. “I can do that and not have to sacrifice my hobby of mountain biking. Choices are key, earning the real living wage means that I have more choices which has a strong positive effect on my life.”
The Westminster Government’s so-called “living wage” is merely a new minimum wage rate for staff over 25-years-old. It was introduced in April 2016 and the rate is £7.83 per hour as of April 2018. The government rate is based on median earnings while the Living Wage Foundation rate of £9 is calculated according to the cost of living.
More than 25,000 people in Scotland have had a pay rise thanks to Living Wage Scotland.
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