Leeds entrepreneur discusses the future of work with Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

During the Leeds Digital Festival, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, visited wac – an app for hourly-paid workers to take charge of their work life and finances – at their city centre office.

During the Leeds Digital Festival, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch met with Leeds-based entrepreneur, Georgina Fairhall, founder and chief executive of wac – who has previously been named the UK’s number one entrepreneur under the age of 29 – to discuss the positive impact her company has on unsupported workers nationwide.

After a quick tour around the wac office and meeting the team, the founder shared her story with Baroness Jones of Whitchurch. Whilst completing her LPC to pursue a potential career in law, Fairhall was underpaid for the final time when an agency cheated her out of a £250 paycheck. Rather than complaining, George decided to become part of the solution by founding wac, and in early 2020, just weeks before sections of the UK economy were paralysed by lockdown, the app hit the app store for the first time, supporting workers who found themselves working more increasingly chaotic shift patterns.

What is the Leeds Digital Festival?

Leeds Digital Festival is an open, collaborative celebration of digital culture in all its forms. The Festival harnesses the magic of the Leeds tech ecosystem’s unique collaborative spirit and showcases the digital enterprise and innovation that is happening in the City on a regional, national and international level.

Why are workers underpaid?

Fairhall set out on her mission to end the underpayment epidemic once and for all. Underpayment can occur for a multitude of reasons according to the female founder with the most common reasons being companies working with outdated systems and processes, human error, or missed breaks and overtime. This social issue disproportionally affects lower-income households, those aged 18-24, and single parents, particularly those working in the NHS, hospitality or retail sectors. 

Despite a challenging start, the business has gone from strength to strength and has recently celebrated the launch of its premium version, with paying users in 30 countries within the last five months.

To bring these key issues to life, Baroness Jones met wac user, Alina, a retail assistant, from Leeds who has worked various hourly-paid jobs over the last 10 years, often managing multiple employers to make a liveable salary. Alina admitted her biggest struggle as an hourly-paid worker has been organisation. “When you’re working multiple jobs, all of the admin that comes with it is a full-time job in itself. Over the years I’ve been underpaid in multiple jobs and due to being overworked haven’t had the capacity to claim back unpaid wages. wac has made the process so much easier and taken the pressure off.”

Fairhall also highlighted the barriers she’s faced while raising investments as a first-time female founder from a non-technical background for a B2C business, typically viewed as the highest-risk investment. Despite only 2% of VC funding going to female-led businesses, Fairhall has raised £1.3 million to build her dream app and is opening her seed round in early 2025 to scale the business.

Who is Baroness Jones of Whitchurch?

In her role as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch is responsible for online safety and counter-disinformation; the Digital Markets Unit; as well as tech policy and market-facing technology, including skills. Until 2006 Jones was Director of Policy and Public Affairs of the trade union UNISON and has a background as a housing campaigner and environmentalist as well as fighting low pay and discrimination at work. The new labour government has just revealed their plans for an updated Employment Rights Bill which will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, end fire and rehire, and introduce basic employment rights from day one – like paternity and parental leave, and protection from unfair dismissal.

George Fairhall, Founder and CEO of wac said: “We were delighted to welcome Baroness Jones of Whitchurch into our office and highlight the impact we’re having on low-paid workers nationwide. We hope to collaborate with the government in the future to protect the UK workforce when it comes to fair pay, ensuring all workers feel valued, secure and empowered when it comes to their rights.”

wac is the #1 app empowering hourly-paid workers to track their hours and feel good about money. They’ve helped thousands of hourly-paid workers spot underpayments which would have been missed without tracking their hours. wac is free to download from the App Store and Google Play Store.