How should we set pay levels?
Question and answers for employers
‘Some see wardenship as a service they wish to give, perhaps on early retirement; others regard it as a very worthwhile form of employment.’ Quaker faith and practice, 13.35.
Wardens and other employees have lots of different motivations to undertake their work. As an employer, you need to make sure that you offer the right level of salary for the job and the nature of the work, making sure that:
- You meet minimum wage requirements.
- The salary is affordable. You need to ensure affordability not just in the current year, but of course also in for foreseeable future.
- The salary is fair relative to what any other employees are paid in the local meeting (and also ideally the area meeting)
- The salary is sufficiently competitive to enable you to attract suitable candidates. In order to decide what is competitive, you will need to compare the salary with other similar posts. For a cleaning or gardening or accounts post, this will be salary rates for cleaners, gardeners or accounts clerks in the local area. For wardens, you might wish to find out what other area meetings in the area are paying.
If you engage a warden or resident friend on a voluntary basis, you do not need to pay the national minimum wage. See Engaging an unpaid resident friend or unpaid resident warden as a volunteer.
