A GLASGOW-BASED company has bucked the low-wage trend in the catering industry by signing up for Scottish Living Wage Accreditation.

Wild Fig is a bespoke outside catering company that has paid at least the current living wage since it was launched five years ago.

Wild Fig’s managing director Nicola Maule said: “It was always our intention to pay what we considered a fair wage to staff we employed, regardless of age.

“This desire came from many years working in the hospitality industry ourselves, where wages were low and the expectation of working long hours was standard.

“In some ways it really is a shame that the living wage has had to be introduced – paying a fair wage should not be something that has to be fought and campaigned for.”

Rather than have a negative impact, Nicola and her partner Justin have found paying higher wages to be beneficial.

Their staff have told them that the pay rate was a real attraction and since employing them they have managed to retain people in an industry with a high turnover of staff.

“We certainly benefited from a large number of applicants with our recruitment drive,” said Nicola. “We do have a very high retention of staff and this wage, certainly among other things, is perhaps a factor.

“For us the driving force behind our business is the people that work with us. They are a key part, if not the most important part of making Wild Fig a success.”

Currently employing seven people, the company has plans to develop its range of produce and expand its reach to retailers within the UK and abroad.

“At the end of the next two years I would like to see us having a larger workforce than we have presently to reflect this growth,” said Nicola.

While she accepts that each business has its own aims and views on the best way to grow and develop, she recommends adopting the living wage as a policy.

“We started out paying above the national minimum wage when setting up our business as it was an important issue for us,” she said.

“It is of course a bigger step to begin paying the living wage from a different position, when a business has long been established perhaps and the financial change and implications would be felt, but pay is a direct measure of value as an employee.

“I do remember looking at the wage slip at the end of the week, thinking how hard I had worked and soberly relating that back to the cost of living and the wages that were sitting in my pay packet.

“It can also very frustrating. I remember working just as hard as my colleagues yet due to my age my hourly rate of pay for doing exactly the same job was lower.

“This was not a culture I wanted to continue as a businesswoman.”

Scottish Living Wage Accreditation differs from the National Living Wage which is set by the UK Government at £7.50 and is the amount of money all employees aged over 25 are legally entitled to.

The Scottish Living Wage is a voluntary scheme that recognises the actual cost of living.

Since it was launched in April 2014, more than 800 organisations in Scotland have signed up to become accredited as official living wage employers, giving their workers at least £8.45 per hour.

The Living Wage rate applies to all workers over 18 “in recognition that young people face the same living costs as everyone else”.