Image credit - The Guardian[/caption]The government has decided to increase the minimum wage by more than a pound from next year's April. The minimum wage of the country, known officially as the National Living Wage is currently £10.42 an hour for employees over 23 years. This is going to be £11.44 per hour in the next year. However, another groundbreaking decision is that this wage increase will be applied to workers 21 and 22 years of age for the first time, as decided and announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. This means a full-time worker who is above the age of 23 years will receive a raise worth £1,800 a year on their wages. Applying the same rules for 21-22-year-olds, the workers could see an effective rise of £2,300 annually.
This policy change is happening ahead of the Autumn Statement of Mr. Hunt which will also see the chancellor outline the latest governmental tax and spending decisions. At the Conservative Party conference in October, Jeremy Hunt announced that the minimum wage is set to rise to £11 from April next year. This rise will represent a 12.4% jump for workers aged 22 and 21 and a 9.8% increase for over-23s last year. The current minimum wage for employees over 23 years is £10.42 an hour and for employees of 21-22 years, is £10.18 an hour.
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Image Credit - The Worcester Observer[/caption]In the same conference, it was also announced that for 18-20-year-olds, the separate National Minimum Wage will also increase by £8.60 an hour from what it previously was £7.49 per hour. According to this decision, the above-inflation wage hikes will benefit a total of 2.7 million low-paid workers in the country. The same rise will happen for apprentices as well, where the hourly pay will increase by over 20%, to £6.40 an hour from the previous £5.28 per hour. The proposals were made by the Low Pay Commission that the chancellor accepted which advises the government on the minimum wage. The proposal was made because of the target to "end low pay" by the conservatives. They plan to achieve success by lifting the minimum wage to two-thirds of a measure of average earnings, which according to this new announcement has been met.
"The National Living Wage has helped halve the number of people on low pay since 2010, making sure work always pays," the Chancellor said. The chair of the Low Pay Commission, Bryan Sanderson said that the recommendation of increasing the minimum wage "attempts to steer a path" through a "high degree of political and economic uncertainty". This move came as the consequence of a higher cost of living that led to household budgets being minimized, This also became the hardest hit for people on low incomes by higher energy and food bills. However, such decisions for pay raises have not come forward without some genuine concerns from the industry. The previous year's similar rise also caused some voices of worries from the hospitality and retail industries regarding higher wage bills.
