Just Eat, JD Sports Targeted by Investors Over Living Wage
November 28 2019 - 6:58AM
Dow Jones News
By Maitane Sardon
A group of investors on Thursday called on U.K. companies
including Just Eat PLC (JE.LN), JD Sports Fashion PLC (JD.LN) and
Royal Mail PLC (RMG.LN) to start paying their staff a "real living
wage."
In a letter, investors representing 2 trillion pounds ($2.57
trillion) in assets and including Legal & General Investment
Management and Hermes Investment Management's ESG arm Hermes EOS
called on companies' chief executives to pay a "real living wage"
of 10.75 pounds ($13.84) an hour to employees living in London and
9.30 pounds ($11.97) to those living elsewhere in the U.K.
In the U.K., the government minimum wage for all staff over 25
years old is 8.21 pounds ($10.57) an hour and is based on a
percentage of median earnings, currently at 55% and aiming to reach
60% by 2020. The real living wage takes into account the cost of
living based on a selection of household goods and services.
The letter was supported by responsible-investment charity
ShareAction and targeted 15 companies listed on the FTSE 100 and
FTSE 250 indexes including United Utilities Group (UU.LN), British
Land Co. (BLND.LN), Rentokil Initial PLC (RTO.LN), International
Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG.LN) and Smurfit Kappa Group PLC
(SK3.DB).
"The case is clear: a workforce that is fairly paid, well valued
and respected will perform better than one that isn't, and
therefore we are asking U.K. companies to consider paying the
living wage as a key indicator of a responsible and sustainable
business," said Pauline Lecoursonnois, engagement professional at
Hermes EOS.
Write to Maitane Sardon at maitane.sardon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2019 06:43 ET (11:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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