Category Archives: Minimum wage rates

Living Wage Foundation brings its annual announcement forward

As reported here in the summer, The Living Wage Foundation has brought forward their announcement of the annual Living Wage/London Living Wage increase. The new figures are £10.90 (90p increase)/£11.95 (£1 increase) respectively – the largest ever annual increase (last … Continue reading

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Living Wage Foundation response to the cost of living crisis

As the cost of living soars at rates not seen for more than thirty years, the Living Wage Foundation has announced plans to bring its annual announcement forward from November to late September. The previous figure was announced in mid-November … Continue reading

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Labour market enforcement – update

Reading my copy of PIRC’s quarterly Work newsletter, I see that there’s no mention of the budget / timetable for the proposed Single Enforcement Body (SEB) that we are hoping to see from the UK government. There is an ongoing … Continue reading

Posted in Employment Contracts, Employment Law and Rights, Gig economy workers, Low pay, Minimum wage rates, Wages and Pay-rates | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How inflation is affecting individual households

Further to the previous post on the cost of living, Bectu reps may wish to circulate this Office for National Statistics (ONS) page on how to calculate your personal cost-of-living changes.

Posted in Economics, Housing costs, Inflation, Low pay, Minimum wage rates, Pay & inflation, Wages and Pay-rates, Welfare and benefits | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Cost of living price rises – it’s all bad news

There’s lots of bad news around for anyone who isn’t enjoying significant wage rises at the moment. ONS figures are reporting that the consumer prices index (CPI) measure of annual inflation rose to 4.2% in October, up from 3.1% in … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Inflation, Low pay, Minimum wage rates, Pay & inflation, Wages and Pay-rates | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Universal Credit and self-employed earnings

The minimum income floor was reintroduced from August 2021, having been suspended soon after the start of the lockdown in April 2020. Broadly, the Work Allowance and taper rate are the same as for employed people. However, a ‘Minimum Income … Continue reading

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New ‘Living Wage’ published

The Living Wage Foundation has published their new ‘Living Wage’ rates – up from £9.50 to £9.90 across the UK (40p increase), and from £10.85 up to £11.05 in London (20p increase). The Living Wage rates are the only rates … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Housing costs, Inflation, Low pay, Minimum wage rates, Pay & inflation, Wages and Pay-rates | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

National Living Wage will rise to £9.50 an hour

The 59p increase for workers over 23 – up 6.6% from £8.91 reflects the inflationary pressure outlined here a few weeks ago. The new rates will rise from 1 April 2022 as follows: National Living Wage for over-23s: From £8.91 … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Inflation, Low pay, Minimum wage rates, National Insurance Contributions (NICs), Pay & inflation, Tax, Trades Unions, Wages and Pay-rates, Wealth inequality | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Class based exclusion in the creative sector

In a huge wake-up call for the creative sector, the (NESTA) Creative Industries Policy and Research Centre have published a damning report on class-based exclusion. The UK’s #CreativeIndustries would need to employ 250,000 more working-class people to be as socio … Continue reading

Posted in Equality, Low pay, Minimum wage rates, Skills & capacity, Wages and Pay-rates, Wealth inequality, Welfare and benefits | Tagged | Leave a comment

Employers minimum-wage shame list and how it affects freelancers

From an HMG press release earlier today: Today (Thursday 5 August) 191 businesses are being named for breaking the national minimum wage law. Following investigations by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, a total of £2.1 million was found to be … Continue reading

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Labour proposes the creation of a single ‘worker’ status

New #ukemplaw bulletin – Labour announces policy to create a single status of ‘worker’ – https://t.co/naWdwwJ1AE — Daniel Barnett (@daniel_barnett) July 26, 2021 Keir Starmer outlines this on LabourList – here. The party has been briefing that the aim here … Continue reading

Posted in Employment Law and Rights, Employment status, Family rights, Freelancer rights, Labour Party, Minimum wage rates | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Upward pressures on low-pay casual wages

This, from the US. It will be interesting to see how the same thing plays out in the UK, with the added spice of Brexit and migration. In the US, one in four workers thinking of leaving their jobs, according … Continue reading

Posted in Coronavirus, EU & Brexit, Gig economy workers, Low pay, Minimum wage rates, Pay & inflation, Wages and Pay-rates | Leave a comment

Whither minimum wages?

From ‘The Future Path of Minimum Wages‘ (IFS, 2019), it is worth remembering that The Conservatives have pledged to raise the National Living Wage (NLW) to two-thirds of median hourly wages by 2024 and extend it to 21- to 24-year-olds. … Continue reading

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National Living Wage and other wage minimums – 2021 changes

On April 1st 2021, the national living wage increased 2.2% from £8.72 to £8.91. This is an annual pay rise of £345 for a full-time employee on this rate. However, prior to this year, the NLW was only applied to … Continue reading

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