Living wage to rise to £9 per hour

A new national ‘living wage’ of more than £9 an hour will be introduced by 2020 for working people aged 25 and over to move Britain to a “higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare economy”.

From April 2016, a new national living wage of £7.20 an hour for the over 25s will be introduced. This will rise to more than £9 an hour by 2020.

Chancellor George Osborne said: “The Low Pay Commission will recommend future rises that achieve the government’s objective of reaching 60 per cent of median earnings by 2020.

“That is the minimum level of pay recommended in the report to the Resolution Foundation by Sir George Bain – chair of the Low Pay Commission Let me address the impact on business and employment.

“The OBR today say that the new national living wage will have, in their words, only a ‘fractional’ effect on jobs.

“The OBR have assessed the economic conditions of the country, and all the policies in the Budget.

“They say that by 2020 there will be 60,000 fewer jobs as a result of the national living wage but almost 1 million more in total.”