When you hire a plumber, electrician, or builder, you probably focus on price, availability, and whether they can do the job well. But there is a fourth factor that affects your community far more than you might realise: whether the business pays its workers a wage they can actually live on.
What is the Real Living Wage?
The Real Living Wage is an independently calculated hourly rate based on the actual cost of living in the UK — housing, food, transport, and other essentials. It is set annually by the Living Wage Foundation, a UK charity, based on research by the Resolution Foundation.
As of April 2025, the Real Living Wage is £12.60 per hour across the UK, and £13.85 in London, where costs are higher.
How is it different from the National Minimum Wage?
The National Minimum Wage (often called the National Living Wage for workers over 21) is the legal floor set by the government. It is the minimum a business must pay by law. The Real Living Wage is voluntary — businesses choose to pay it because they believe it is the right thing to do.
The Real Living Wage is typically £1–£2 per hour higher than the government minimum. For a full-time worker, that is over £2,000 more per year.
Why does it matter for trades and local services?
The trades sector — plumbing, electrical work, construction, cleaning — employs millions of people across the UK, many of them in lower-paid roles. Labourers, apprentices, support staff, and admin workers in trade businesses are particularly vulnerable to low-wage practices.
A trade business that pays the Real Living Wage is making a deliberate choice to prioritise its workforce. That choice has a measurable knock-on effect: better retention, lower staff turnover, fewer disputes, and a workforce that can afford to spend money in the same local community it serves.
How can you tell if a business pays the Real Living Wage?
The simplest way is to check the Living Wage Foundation's accredited employer list at livingwage.org.uk. Businesses that are formally accredited have committed to pay the Real Living Wage to all directly employed and regularly contracted staff.
On TopTenTrades, Living Wage accreditation is one of our verified ethics tags and contributes to the Employment pillar of a business's Social Ethics Score. Every business with the tag has had their accreditation confirmed against the Foundation's register.
What about zero-hours contracts?
Zero-hours contracts — where workers have no guaranteed hours — are common in some parts of the trades sector. They are not illegal, but they can be exploitative when used to avoid paying for holiday, shift premiums, or sick pay.
We track zero-hours contract usage as part of our Employment pillar score. Businesses with high zero-hours rates are scored lower, because insecure work undermines the financial stability of local workers and their families.
The bottom line
Choosing a trade business that pays the Real Living Wage is one of the most direct ways to ensure your spending supports workers in your community. It costs you nothing extra — but it means the people doing the work can afford to live in the area they serve.