Brewer commits to Edinburgh Living Wage – Scottish Business News

SCOTTISH beer maker Vault City Brewing has committed to pay staff the London Living Wage as the ‘cost of living in Scotland’s capital’ becomes ‘a critical factor in its team’s wellbeing.’

The Edinburgh-based brewer – famous for creating modern and innovative sour beers with flavours including Iron Brew, Cloudy Lemonade and Rhubarb and Custard now offers a minimum salary of £13.15 per hour – £1.15 more than the Real Living Wage across the rest of the UK. 

The London Living Wage was introduced in 2008 and is, “calculated independently to reflect the high cost of living in the capital, giving a worker and their family enough to afford the essentials and to save.’ Vault City’s co-founder Steven Smith-Hay says the pledge ‘ensures that every team member feels valued and adequately compensated for their hard work”. 

Steven, who started brewing the beer in his kitchen in 2018, said: “We recognised that the cost of living in Edinburgh has continued to increase over the last few years, that this is a critical factor in our team’s wellbeing. Our strong community of customers want to enjoy beer made by people who were paid fairly. Matching the London Living Wage is a reaffirmation of our core values, to reflect the world we’re living in now. Our team has been and always will be our greatest asset, so we feel it’s important for us as a business to continue building on that ethos and commitment.”

Edinburgh is the UK’s priciest city for university students, over London and Glasgow. It sits 53rd in the Cost of Living City Ranking, ahead of Sydney and just 10 places behind,‘the world’s next big millionnaire hot spot’, Abu Dhabi. Last year it was named the UK’s  third most expensive city to live in on your own. As of May, the average house price for Edinburgh’s first-time buyers was £402,000 –up £20,000 since 2023. That is £172,000 more than the Scottish average and £72,000 over that of Great Britain. One in seven Edinburgh children are living in poverty – the highest rate since comparable records began. Just this week, stand up comedian, John Tothill admitted he agreed to contract malaria to earn enough money to spend one month in Edinburgh to perform at the Fringe Festival. 

This isn’t the first innovative measure put in place by the beer makers. In 2022 Vault City became the first commercial brewery in the UK to adopt a four-day working week, as hours were slashed from 40 to 35.

Steven continued: “We’ve always strived to set a high standard within and out with our industry, promoting fair wages and fair working policies. Alongside improved employee wellbeing and work-life balance, the biggest benefit we’ve seen has been a reduction in recruitment costs and challenges. We’ve been able to attract some incredible talent when hiring because of our fair working policies and benefits packages.”

The firm’s recent move to a new brewery with the capacity to produce over 10 million litres of beer annually saw the recruitment of two industry heavyweights to help the brand become a household name. Luca Lorenzoni, and Martin Monro are among the brains behind the growth of brands such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, Camden Town Brewery, Northern Monk and Rekorderlig.

Monro said: “Vault City has established itself as a leader within its space.”

 Vault City exports to more than 20 countries around the world, is stocked in more than 250 bars, and is currently available in Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s as well as Waitrose.