The independent Low Pay Commission (LPC) has recommended that the national minimum wage (NMW) be increased from \u00a36.31 to \u00a36.50 an hour for adults, a rise of 3 per cent.<\/p>\n
Business Secretary Vince Cable told ministers this week that, if the Government decides to accept the recommendation, the rise would be the first real increase ahead of inflation since 2008.<\/p>\n
Generally speaking, ministers accept the LPC\u2019s recommendations, although the proposed rate is less than the \u00a37 an hour suggested in January by Chancellor George Osborne.<\/p>\n
Business organisations have generally welcomed the proposal, with a spokesman for the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) saying that there has to be a balance between helping low-paid employees without undermining employers\u2019 ability to generate jobs and growth.<\/p>\n
However, he added that, as the economy continues to improve, businesses agree that the minimum wage must rise too and, in a recent survey, 60 per cent of chamber members supported an increase in line with current inflation, and fourteen per cent favoured an above-inflation increase. <\/p>\n
Therefore, he said, while the Commission\u2019s recommendation appears to be slightly higher than many employers had hoped, as far as the BCC is concerned, it represents a reasonable compromise. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the CBI said that a rise in the NMW would reflect the improvements currently being seen in the economy and agreed that the LPC has made a sensible judgement on the increase, and not recommended an unaffordable rise that would put jobs at risk.<\/p>\n
The TUC also welcomed the proposed increase and hoped that it would be the first in a series of \u201cbolder increases\u201d aimed at helping the low paid. However, the Unite union called the 19p rise a \u201cslap in the face\u201d for those on the minimum wage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The independent Low Pay Commission (LPC) has recommended that the national minimum wage (NMW) be increased from \u00a36.31 to \u00a36.50 an hour for adults, a rise of 3 per cent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}