Everything’s rosy in the garden!

A benevolent Galway employer has rewarded staff with a generous pay-rise – by bumping up their weekly wages to a Living Wage because ‘it’s the right thing to do’.

Most workers at McD’s, a garden and home store, in Loughrea and Galway City, experienced bigger pay-packets last week after owner Sean McDonald fulfilled a long-time business ambition.

Instead of paying the national minimum wage, all staff over 18 years of age now get the Living Wage of €12.30 per hour or more.

The Living Wage is defined by charities such as Saint Vincent de Paul and trade unions such as SIPTU as a level of pay which makes possible a “minimum acceptable standard of living”. It is higher than the legal requirement, which is the national minimum wage of €10.20 per hour.

All 55 staff at McD’s in The Green Loughrea and Galway Crystal on the Dublin Road now receives at a minimum €12.30 per hour. Many of them are paid more having worked their way up the ladder.

Staff who are on 20-hour weeks, for example, are now earning €2 more per hour, or an extra €40 every week.

Owner Seán McDonald explained that there were several benefits to introducing a Living Wage but his primary motivating factor was, ‘it’s the right thing to do’.

“Retail is not classified as being the biggest of payers, but I just think if you can do it, you should do it. We’ve introduced a Living Wage. That was one of my goals when I set-up my business.  Now that’s probably my biggest single achievement in business.

“It’s something I always had an ambition to do. Down through the years, it’s up and down. You struggle, you do well, you struggle, you do well. You never fully have a right time to make the decision to do it but this year I just decided it was the time,” he said.

McD’s celebrates twelve years in business this Friday, May 14.

Visit their website at http:www.mcds.ie

Read the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie