Making It Official: Why We're Now a London Living Wage Employer

Here's something we've always believed: the people you work with should earn enough to actually live on. Not just survive – live.

At Ginkgo Financial, we've always paid a living wage. But recently we decided to make it official. We're now a certified London Living Wage employer, which means everyone on our team earns at least £14.80 per hour – significantly more than the government minimum of £12.21.

The reality in London

Let me paint you a picture. In London, 14.4% of all jobs – that's 653,000 roles – pay less than the real Living Wage. Walk around Blackheath and you'll see houses worth over a million pounds. Look at rental prices in SE3 and you'll see one-bedroom flats going for £1,500 a month. Yet across London, hundreds of thousands of people are working full-time and still struggling to cover the basics.

That gap between the cost of living and what people actually earn? It's widening. And it affects everything: childcare, transport, energy bills, food shopping. The basics aren't negotiable, and they're not cheap.

Why we made it official

We've always paid fairly, so you might wonder: why bother with accreditation?

Three reasons.

First, visibility matters. Ginkgo sits in a community of businesses – from independent shops to professional services – and we want other local employers to know this is possible. It's about showing what good looks like.

Second, our people are everything. I won't pretend otherwise – Canary Wharf is just down the road. The bright lights and big salaries are there. But we're building something different here: a firm where people stay because they're valued, not just paid. Fair pay is part of that. It helps us attract brilliant people and, crucially, keep them.

Third – and most importantly – it's the right thing to do. This isn't CSR box-ticking. It's not a nice-to-have that sits in a separate folder marked "corporate responsibility." It's central to who we are.

Grow with Ginkgo

Our accreditation ties directly into Grow with Ginkgo, our commitment to the local community. It's about making sure that as we grow, everyone connected to us – our team, our clients, our neighbours – has the chance to thrive.

That's not a marketing line. It's a promise.

We're grateful to the Royal Borough of Greenwich for their support in making this happen. Their grant scheme helped us get accredited, and it's encouraging to be part of a thriving community of Living Wage employers across Greenwich. From Greenwich Peninsula to Woolwich, Eltham to Blackheath – businesses like Green Goddess (our brewery neighbours right here at Blackheath Standard), Charlton Athletic, and countless independents are all committed to fair pay. It shows what's possible when a local authority actively supports businesses to do the right thing.

Because financial advice, at its core, is about helping people live better. And if we're not ensuring our own team can do the same, what are we really doing?

The numbers that matter

A full-time worker on the London Living Wage earns £5,050 more each year than someone on the government minimum. That's not pocket change. That's childcare. That's a family holiday. That's savings for emergencies. That's the difference between managing and struggling.

Over 16,000 employers across the UK have now signed up. Together, they've delivered over £4.2 billion in pay rises since 2011. That's real money going to real people, making real differences in millions of lives.

What's next?

We're proud of this step, but we're not stopping here. As London's cost of living continues to rise, we'll keep pace. And we'll keep talking to other businesses in our community about why this matters.

If you're an employer reading this and you're wondering whether you can afford to pay the Living Wage, I'd say: can you afford not to? Your people are your business. Invest in them properly, and everything else follows.

Want to know more about the Living Wage movement? Visit the Living Wage Foundation to find out how your business can get involved.