The Real Food Store in the Media

October 09, 2015
Real Food celebrates 'Social Saturday' with a pay rise

Exeter’s Community owned Real Food Store has said it is delighted that it has been able to increase pay levels for all its staff from this month as part of its commitment to be a good social enterprise employer. This move comes six months ahead of the Government’s plans to introduce the minimum wage new pay rates. The Government will be raising the minimum wage to £7.20 in April 2016 to employees aged 25 and above, however the Real Food Store is paying the new level to all its employees aged 18 and above.

Speaking about the pay rise Lois Gallimore, one of the Store’s Managers said, “Our young workers work as hard as everyone else to make the Store a success and its only fair they should be paid the same.”

The Real Food Store is a high profile high street Social Enterprise, one of many social enterprises across the City which are being promoted by Exeter City Council and Social Enterprise UK on Social Saturday [1], 10th October 2015. Social Saturday aims to recognise the contribution of Social Enterprise to the local economy and culture.  Although operating in a tough high street environment the Real Food Store has always paid a little above the minimum wage and in 2014 adopted a commitment to work towards the Living Wage. David Mezzetti, a Director of the Real Food Store said,

“The retail sector often pays very low wages but we have focused on improving our trading position so that we can begin to better reward staff for the commitment they give. This is an important step towards paying a living wage for all our staff. For young people their first job is a really important first step in working life, so we ensure they are well trained and properly paid. We hope our young employees’ experience with us will inspire many of them to pursue a future career working in the growing social enterprise sector.”