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Amazon is one of the world’s most recognised organisations. It was the first to leverage on-line platforms for selling and distribution, making its first book sale on-line in 1995 before diversifying into CD, DVDs and electronics and ultimately becoming the ‘everything store’. As Google is to internet search, Amazon is to e-commerce, practically inventing this category of shopping. Amazon’s overriding goal is ‘to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything online’.

While the concept of a Living Wage is not new, the modern Living Wage movement is viewed as having developed in America in the municipal government sector. In 1994, seeing full-time employees coming to their soup kitchens, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (a coalition of churches, trade unions and neighbourhood groups) started campaigning for a Living Wage (Luce, 2017). Their campaign spread and Lammam (2014) reported that more than 140 American municipalities have Living Wage laws. In contrast, the modern campaign for a Living Wage in the UK emerged in the commercial district of London’s Canary Wharf. The East London branch (TELCO) of the community organisation Citizens UK launched the campaign in 2001, staging protest actions which led to payment of the Living Wage at prominent city banks. The campaign became national and is coordinated by the Living Wage Foundation, established in 2011 by Citizens UK. As a direct result of these campaigns, wage increases have been secured in universities, banking and financial services, healthcare, cleaning, hospitality, catering and retail (Wills and Sims, 2004; Lopes and Hall, 2015).

KnowledgeLtd is one of the world’s largest and most successful professional service firms. Originally established over a century ago, it has enjoyed substantial growth through a combination of mergers, acquisitions and organic expansion. The firm is headquartered in the UK, but has offices in over 150 countries from Australia to Zimbabwe and employs over 200 000 people worldwide. In 2018, its global revenues exceeded US$40 billion. As an organisation, it is held in high esteem and consistently features in the ‘top employer’ lists of many countries.