BrewDog is cutting hourly pay rates for its new London hires despite upping them in the rest of the UK.
In a letter to staff, BrewDog Bars CEO James Brown said all new workers would now be paid £11.44 per hour nationwide - the national living wage. That represents a cut of more than 4% compared to existing London staff, who are paid £11.95 per hour.
Bar staff outside London would see their pay go up by around 5% - while existing London staff would have their hourly pay frozen, a real-terms cut.
Brown told employees: “Even with [a] strong performance over Christmas, as a wider business there is no hiding from the fact that in 2023, we made a trading loss, and despite many efforts in the past 12 months to reduce our spending, we still need to find more ways to get this business back to profitability and the financial stability that is needed.
“Inevitably, this does mean making some hard decisions.”
Almost all national employers pay a premium to London-based staff, to make up for higher-than-average living costs. London rent costs are more than double the UK average.
A BrewDog spokesperson said: “We have always been fully committed to doing the best we can for our people, and our benefits package is far more generous than the industry average.
“Our team also benefits from a unique bonus scheme which sees all crew members receive an additional £1 an hour for the month for surpassing customer service standards. In addition, we offer signature benefits like “pawternity” leave and paid sabbaticals after five years of service.”
The move represents the latest controversy for the firm after it lost its B Corp status, was criticised over its 'hypocritical' stance on the 2022 World Cup and its founder was accused of inappropriate behaviour, which he denied.
