Chancellor commits to National Living Wage increase

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt used the Conservative Party conference to announce that the National Living Wage is set to rise to two-thirds of average earnings.

He has committed to the Low Pay Commission’s latest recommendations, with latest forecasts showing a pay boost next year worth more than £1,000 for two million low-paid workers.

Successive rises also mean a full-time worker on the National Living Wage will be more than £9,000 better off than they would have been in 2010.

The commission’s recommendations will be announced later this month and the chancellor is expected to give further details in his autumn statement.

Based its latest forecasts, this would see the National Living Wage increase to more than£11 an hour from April 2024.

And it would also mean the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage will increase by more than £1,000 next year.

Each year, the independent Low Pay Commission produces recommendations to the government on National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates.

This year it is due to make recommendations for the rates that will take effect from April 2024, based on their remit which sets a target for the National Living Wage to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024 for workers aged 21 and over, taking economic conditions into account.

The commission is made up of representatives from business, employee and academic communities and reaches a consensus agreement on this uprating.

Prior to the first target announced in 2015, its remit was to set rates as high as possible without significant employment impacts.

• To discuss any issues raised by this article please contact me on 01772 430000