The Low Pay Commission, the body that advises the Government on the level of the minimum wage, has welcomed the acceptance of its recommendations for the rates to apply from April 2018. These include a 4.4% increase in the National Living Wage, the rate for workers aged 25 and over, from £7.50 to £7.83.
LPC chair, Bryan Sanderson, said: “The LPC welcomes the Government’s acceptance of our recommendations, which we are required to make on the National Living Wage and the other rates of the National Minimum Wage. On the former we are asked to make recommendations such that the rate reaches 60% of typical earnings by 2020. For the latter, which affect those below the age of 25 and apprentices, we recommend rates as high as possible without damaging employment. The core decision was whether the most recent economic evidence met the condition of sustained economic growth to enable the NLW to be uprated in line with the path to 60% of median earnings. Commissioners weighed the available evidence carefully, judged that it did, and agreed to keep a steady course to 2020. The recommended rate of £7.83 is in line with the indicative rate of £7.85 that we set out last October.”
Sanderson continued: “For young people aged between 18 and 24 years old, commissioners judged that economic conditions warranted larger percentage increases. There have been ongoing improvements in their employment and unemployment position, and their earnings have been growing faster than those of workers aged 25 and over for three years. This is good news for the millions of low paid workers who are paid at the minimum rates.”