A Scottish beer maker has committed to paying staff the London Living Wage and raised the question over whether there should be an Edinburgh version.

Vault City Brewery will now offer a minimum salary of £13.15 per hour, which is £1.15 more than the real living wage across the rest of the UK. The Edinburgh-based brewer is famous for their innovate sour beers having created flavours such as Iron Brew, Cloudy Lemonade and Rhubarb and Custard and believe the growing costs of living in Edinburgh need matched by wages.

The London Living Wages 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 to their employees makes sure that everyone in their team feels valued and compensated correctly for their hard work.

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He 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.”

The cost of living in Edinburgh is pricy, with it currently the priciest in the UK for university students ahead of both London and Glasgow. It also sits high at 53rd in the Cost of Living City Ranking, ahead of Sydney and just behind Abu Dhabi, dubbed the ‘World’s next big millionaire hot spot’.

There was also issues with house prices, with the average for first-time buyers rising to £402,000 in May. That is up £20,000 on 2023 and is £172,000 more than the average in Scotland and £72,000 over that of Great Britain while one in seven Edinburgh children now live in poverty – the highest rate since comparable records began.

Earlier this week, John Tothill admitted he agreed to contract malaria to earn enough money to spend one month in Edinburgh to perform his stand-up comedy show at the Fringe Festival.

That is why Vault City has now decided to introduce the London Living Wage to the Scottish capital and it isn’t the first time the beer makers have put innovative measures in place. In 2022, Vault City became the first commercial brewery in the UK to adopt a four-day working week with hours cut from 40 to 35.

Steven, who started brewing beer in his kitchen in 2018, hopes it can continue to help staff as much as possible.

He 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.”

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