Why Luton Town are proud to be real Living Wage employers

Gary Sweet is chief executive of Luton Town FC

Luton Town has proudly been an accredited Living Wage employer since December 2014 – the first club to become one in professional football in England. There is absolutely no excuse across the EFL and the Premier League not to be involved in such an excellent scheme, yet a majority of clubs in the top four tiers are still not accredited employers – in fact, there are only four in the Premier League .

When making this commitment, we hoped it would have a knock-on effect across the leagues, which it has slowly done. When looking at the pros in being a Living Wage employer, it is one of the easiest decision the business has ever made. It mystifies us that clubs – especially in the Premier League – do not commit to this scheme. Comparatively, Luton Town’s yearly turnover is significantly dwarfed by that of any team in the top tier.

We are proud to differentiate as a business in a positive way in this sense, however, we would much rather see every single club in professional football become an accredited employer, if it meant there were fewer people living below the poverty line.

Inclusivity

Ethically, we want to be an inclusive company, and it would it be wrong on a fundamental level to label ourselves as inclusive if staff were being paid an amount that sees them struggle to make ends meet.

Our work in being an inclusive business within the community doesn’t stop there – our partner charities over recent years such as Chums and Level Trust help different people from different backgrounds. We invested a lot of time during our links with these charities and it proved incredibly fruitful, notably, the money we raised helped Level Trust open up a fantastic uniform exchange shop in the Town centre. We hope to reach the same level of success with Luton Food Bank this year.

Work with our Community Trust means we deliver over 3,500 individual engagements each week, which involves our disability team, after-school Sports Cohesion Programme and our Luton Street League sports skills and employment programme.

As a business, we want to see motivated and proud staff – people who are pleased to be working for Luton Town Football Club. Paying the Living Wage goes a long way to ensuring this and that reflects in the loyalty shown by the staff we have – both those who have been with us for over 20 years and those who have joined in more recent times.

Why we do it

Success on the pitch should reflect off it, and behind the scenes we certainly are in a good place with the members of staff who work for the football club.

Praise from across the board has very much been welcomed, but it is individual stories like Holly Kemp’s who gives us more motivation than ever to continue the scheme. Holly has been at the club for over five years, starting off as a temporary member of staff before becoming full-time in the Ticket Office.

Being paid the Living Wage helped her put down a mortgage for a house in the local area with her partner, and given the current climate and well-known difficulty of getting on the housing market as a first time buyer, we are pleased to see that us signing up to the Living Wage Foundation has gone towards ensuring she has got on the ladder.

It is people and reasons like Holly that we are a part of the Living Wage Foundation. The club has done this without taking money from other areas – such as an increase in ticket prices or food and drink on matchdays. It has all been done out of the company’s pocket.

Giving back

We aren’t unique in being a business that really cares about Luton – there are a number across the town who are hugely involved in ensuring that we move forward positively. Paying the Living Wage is an investment in the staff and in a way, an investment into the area – a great number of us are Lutonians or adopted members of the town – and by doing so we see it as a small way of giving back to the town and back to the communities which the club has been a huge part of since 1885.

Being part of the Living Wage Foundation is a fantastic way for any company, but especially professional sports clubs, to reinvest back into the local area, and we hope to see this fantastic scheme continue to grow in 2019.