Millions of low paid get a 19p an hour rise
MORE than two million of the lowestpaid workers will receive a £345 pay rise next year after the Chancellor increased the national living wage.
Rishi Sunak said the rate would rise by 19p to £ .91 – benefiting those on the lowest salaries by £4,000 since the policy was introduced in 2016.
It will also be extended to 23 and 24-year-olds for the first time.
Speaking to MPs yesterday, he said: ‘We are accepting in full the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission to increase the national living wage by 2.2 per cent to £ .91 an hour; to extend this rate to those aged 23 and over; and to increase the national minimum wage rates as well. Taken together, these minimum wage increases will likely benefit around two million people.’
The Low Pay Commission had proposed a figure of £9.21 an hour but adjusted it in line with average earnings as the pandemic took hold.
Chairman Bryan Sanderson said: ‘There are strong arguments concerning both low-paid workers, many performing critically important tasks, and the very real solvency risks to which small businesses are currently exposed. We have opted for a prudent increase which consolidates the considerable progress of recent years and provides a base from which we can move towards the Government’s target over the next few years.’
Tom Waters of the Institute for Fiscal Studies said: ‘Clearly the current environment – when many employers are struggling to even stay open – isn’t a suitable one for big increases in minimum wages, so raising the national living wage in line with average earnings seems sensible.
‘But the Government still wants to get the NLW to two-thirds of average pay by 2024. Treading water this year implies faster increases in the following three years if the target is to be met.’ Trades Union Congress general secretary Frances O’Grady accused the Government of letting low-paid workers down.
‘Workers expecting a national minimum wage increase have been let down by the Government’s decision to row back on the full rise they were promised,’ she said.
General secretary of the shopworkers’ union Usdaw, Paddy Lillis, said: ‘The increase of 19p to £ .91 an hour doesn’t meet the union’s call for £10 per hour, the real living wage rate of £9.50 or even the Government’s previously projected rate of £9.21.’