1.8 million workers earning the National Living Wage (NLW) will receive an additional £690 over the year from today (Monday 1 April), as the biggest ever increase to NLW comes into effect.
The National Minimum Wage (NMW) is also increasing. This includes £7.70 per hour for 21 to 24-year olds, providing an additional £580 over the year for full-time workers, and £6.15 for 18 to 20-year olds, providing full-time workers with an additional £455 over the year. Taken together with changes to NLW, 2.1 million people will be receiving a pay increase from today, with workers in the retail and hospitality sectors due to benefit the most.
Kelly Tolhurst, Business Minister, said,
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We are committed to making sure that UK workers get a fair day’s pay and the rise in the National Living and Minimum Wage, benefiting millions of people, delivers on this commitment. Since the National Living Wage was announced in 2015, it has helped protect the lowest paid – increasing faster than inflation and average earnings. Our minimum wage rates are among the highest in the world and, through our modern Industrial Strategy, we are determined to end low pay and workers get a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.
Bryan Sanderson, Low Pay Commission Chair, said,
We are pleased that millions of workers across the country will see an above-inflation pay rise as a result of today’s minimum wage increases, which follow the recommendations the LPC made in the autumn. Today is particularly significant as it also marks 20 years of the National Minimum Wage. Over the last 20 years the NMW and more recently the NLW have achieved their goal of raising pay without significant negative effects on employment.
The UK’s minimum wage is currently growing faster than other countries with similar or higher minimum wage, such as Belgium, France and Germany.
The Government aims to end low pay and later this year will announce the independent Low Pay Commission’s remit after 2020. At Spring Statement, Ministers also announced that the world-leading academic Professor Arin Dube will lead a review of the impact of minimum wages internationally.
Wage increases follow hot on the heels of the biggest increase to workers’ rights in a generation, launched in 2018, and are a vital aspect of the modern Industrial Strategy.
As part of this, on 6 April all workers, including casual and zero-hour workers, will have the right to receive a payslip and the maximum employment tribunal fines for employers will quadruple from £5,000 to £20,000.
Aphrodite is a creative writer and editor specialising in publishing and communications. She is passionate about undertaking projects in diverse sectors. She has written and edited copy for media as varied as social enterprise, art, fashion and education. She is at her most happy owning a project from its very conception, focusing on the client and project research in the first instance, and working closely with CEOs and Directors throughout the consultation process. Much of her work has focused on rebranding; messaging and tone of voice is one of her expertise, as is a distinctively unique writing style in my most of her creative projects. Her work is always driven by the versatility of language to galvanise image and to change perception, as it is by inspiring and being inspired by the wondrous diversity of people with whom paths she crosses cross!
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Aphrodite is also a professional painter.
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