‘When will we have a break?’: the cost of growing inflation
Pay growth in the UK continued to lag behind inflation in December as households faced the biggest fall in living standards in three decades. Average weekly pay, excluding bonuses, fell in real terms, according to official figures. The Guardian spoke to workers and employers about the pressure to keep up with inflation.
Paul de Savary has raised pay to recruit and retain staff at the care home provider he runs in Lincolnshire. With shortages of staff in the sector nationwide, the managing director of Home From Home Care has raised the firm’s wage bill by 20% in a year to avoid losing staff.
“We saw a situation building in the summer where we were going to run out of staff if we weren’t careful. They were all going to hospitality and other sectors than care,” he said.
The operator of 11 care homes, which has 450 staff and supports adults with learning difficulties and complex needs, has raised starting pay from the £8.91 national living wage to at least £10 an hour. This is above increased legal pay floor of £9.50 an hour due from April.
However, the firm faces spiralling costs across the board, including for energy bills and insurance, and lacks the ability to pass on bumper prices to its customers owing to a lack of adequate government funding for social care. Still, de Savary said retaining staff was vital, even if at the expense of profitability in the short-term.
“We were concerned about the cost of living for our staff,” he said. “If they’re worrying about things, we have to help them. They’re at the heart of everything we do.”
“It seems to me like I’m just working to be able to cover the bills,” said Matthew Tovey. The 30-year-old from Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, said his pay had not risen above inflation for a decade
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