UK developer Chucklefish is rising wages by £4,000 ($4500) to assist workers address the continued price of dwelling disaster.

Chucklefish comms supervisor Alexis Trust broke the information on Twitter, and stated the wage bump is a company-wide initiative that follows a ten % wage improve that was issued in April 2022.

The transfer goals to (partially) offset the hovering price of dwelling within the UK, with surging vitality costs, rising inflation, bumper meals payments, and stagnating pay leaving many struggling to make ends meet.

Offering extra background on the present make-up of Chucklefish, Trust defined the corporate is a majority ladies studio — with ladies at present accounting for round 60 % of all staff — that pivoted to a four-day work week with no pay lower virtually a yr in the past.

Trust stated the change to a four-day week has been “extremely profitable,” which tracks with what we heard final yr after we spoke to quite a lot of builders concerning the impression of shorter weeks, and that Chucklefish additionally has a “no-crunch coverage.”

“I solely share this partially as a humble(ish)brag, however principally as a result of I’ve seen it work, I do know it is doable, and I do know we need not grind ourselves into mud to create artwork,” stated Trust. “This crew is gifted and passionate. Don’t let some fossil inform you that you have to crunch to care.”

Those feedback comes simply days after The Callisto Protocol director appeared to promote crunch on social media, earlier than swiftly backtracking.

Although it looks as if Chucklefish is in place in the meanwhile, the studio has beforehand been accused of utilizing unpaid labor when engaged on Starbound.

The UK firm is maybe finest know, nonetheless, for its work on Stardew Valley, which got here to an finish in March this yr when Chucklefish handed again the vast majority of publishing duties over to developer ConcernedApe.