AN ORGANIC craft brewery in Thrupp has made a commitment to pay its employees a living wage.

The pledge means that everyone working at Stroud Brewery will receive a minimum hourly wage of £8.25.

Owner of the brewery Greg Pilley said: “Our core staff have always been paid more than the living wage.

“But when we started taking on casual bar staff we decided it was only fair to work on the basis of a living wage.

"We have also always tried to raise our core salaries by the level of inflation so that nobody has a reduction in salary in real terms.”

The national minimum wage is £6.70 and the new minimum wage premium for over 25s of £7.20 per hour is set to be introduced in April.

Living Wage Foundation director, Sarah Vero said: “We are delighted to welcome Stroud Brewery to the living wage movement as an accredited employer.

“The best employers are voluntarily signing up to pay the living wage now. The living wage is a robust calculation that reflects the real cost of living, rewarding a hard day’s work with a fair day’s pay.

“We have accredited over 2,000 leading employers, including Stroud Brewery, ranging from independent printers, bookshops and breweries, to well-known companies such as Nationwide, Aviva and SSE.

“These businesses recognise that clinging to the national minimum wage is not good for business. Customers expect better than that.”

The living wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually. It is calculated according to the basic cost of living using the Minimum Income Standard for the UK.