Lush increases Real Living Wages as inflation hits highest levels in decades

Beauty company Lush has increased its Real Living Wages as inflation hits the highest levels in decades and the cost of living crisis intensifies.

Lush has increased wages to £9.90 in the UK, and £11.05 in London, compared to the Government’s announced increase of National Living Wage for over 23 year olds only of £9.50 and Minimum Wage of £8.36.

The company decided to increase its wages after new research by the Living Wage Foundation found that with the rising cost of living, the current National Living Wage falls short of hundreds of pounds for people in the UK and thousands for those living in London.

Kim Coles, Lush Finance Director commented: “At Lush we are incredibly grateful to the Living Wage Foundation for providing an independently calculated real living wage rate for us each year; particularly in these tough times when our people need it the most.

"Lush staff making and selling our products are crucial to our success and we continue to commit to the rate to ensure that, as the cost of living continues to rise, we can be confident that our rates of pay are fair and that our staff can afford what they need to thrive, not just to survive.”

Lush has also committed to continue to pay staff to self-isolate and will be providing twice weekly Lateral Flow tests to all its retail and manufacturing staff. The move comes after remaining COVID measures were removed in England on 25th February and free access to lateral flow tests ended on 1 April.