What we fund – ShareAction

Programme area: Decent work

Amount: £236,000

Length of grant: 2023-2026

Impact goal: Increasing jobs that provide decent pay and conditions

Deliveroo workers come together to demand change at the Deliveroo AGM in London, May 2023. Image provided by IWGB

Paid work plays a vital role in lifting people out of poverty. But in London, low pay and insecure work are too common. More than half of adult Londoners in poverty are employed. On top of this, workers from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be low paid. While gender pay gap reporting is mandatory for companies with over 250 employees, no such legislation exists to monitor pay disparity for workers of different ethnicities.

The project

Investors can have a great deal of influence over how businesses act and treat their workers. We fund ShareAction’s Good Work programme, which co-ordinates a growing number of London-based investors to pioneer responsible investment practices.

This project aims to ensure investors engage with companies on businesses practices, that workers are empowered to engage with investors and businesses and that policymakers act on the need for ethnicity pay gap reporting. This work includes:

1. Educating investors about the issues of in-work poverty and the ethnicity pay gap and the actions they can take including through briefings, webinars and roundtables.
2. Co-ordinating and growing a coalition of investors who actively engage with companies in their portfolios on issues such as low pay and the ethnicity pay gap. The coalition includes large asset management firms such as Aviva, HSBC Asset Management and Legal & General Investment Management. ShareAction also engages with asset managers outside of the coalition to support engagement with companies.
3. A partnership with the Runnymede Trust and Reboot to run focus groups and build an investor toolkit for the case on ethnicity pay gap reporting. On top of this, carry out a campaign to encourage policymakers to take action on the need for ethnicity pay gap reporting.
4. Attending companies’ AGMS and asking questions about the Living Wage, as well as coordinating letters from investors on this topic to companies. It also coordinates meetings with companies on this topic such as with supermarkets – a sector where low-pay is common - including Ocado, Sainsburys, Iceland and Tesco.
5. Working with people affected by low pay to ensure its work is impactful, create spaces where investors can hear directly from workers about these issues and hold company boards accountable