July Budget 2015: Will George Osborne’s new national living wage hit the number of people in work? July 8, 2015 Sam Bowman, deputy director of the Adam Smith Institute, says Yes. There is lots of research into what the minimum wage does to jobs. Of the 103 papers reviewed by economists David Neumark and William Wascher in a 2006 study, most of them showed that raising the minimum wage reduces long-term employment. Of the 33 [...]
July Budget 2015: George Osborne announces pay rise for Britons with “national living wage” July 8, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne has said he will introduce a compulsory "national living wage" for people aged over 25 as part of his July Budget. Osborne said today that the new "national living wage" will start next April at the rate of £7.20 per hour, before rising to £9 an hour by 2020. He said it means [...]
July Budget 2015: From a new living wage to cutting the bank levy, the key policies that will affect UK businesses July 8, 2015 Today was Britain's first Conservative-only Budget in almost 20 years, and in it chancellor George Osborne revealed a series of policy changes that will affect UK companies Here are the key announcements he made in the business-friendly budget, and what they mean for the UK's companies. Cut to corporation tax The amount of corporation [...]
Two more bad arguments for why Britain needs a mandatory living wage July 6, 2015 With £12bn of working age welfare cuts expected in this Budget, Conservative voices are clamouring for the “living wage” to be used as a means of reducing in-work poverty. In the past week, two celebrity former advisers to the Prime Minister, Steve Hilton and Rohan Silva, have argued the government should boost the national minimum [...]
July Budget 2015: Boris Johnson says cut top tax rate and introduce living wage July 6, 2015 Boris Johnson has said he thinks the government should cut the top rate of income tax from 45 pence and simultaneously make some of Britain's biggest companies pay the living wage. The London mayor argues only boosting the income of society's richest individuals is unfair, and should be matched with pay increases for low-paid employees [...]
July Budget 2015: Pressure mounts on government to back a living wage July 5, 2015 Raising the minimum wage to the so-called “living wage” would lift 6m people out of poverty and generate more than £4bn of additional revenue, according to a new report out today from KPMG. The living wage, as defined by the Living Wage Foundation charity, is £7.85 per hour nationally and £9.15 in London. The national [...]
Why a compulsory living wage is not the best way to help society’s poorest June 8, 2015 The Living Wage Foundation – which lobbies employers to pay £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 elsewhere – has never called for statutory implementation of its cause. It considers itself to be a pragmatic civil society movement, encouraging firms to pay their low-paid workers enough to live comfortably. But the campaign has been hijacked [...]
More shoppers are supporting living wages April 26, 2015 Public sentiment toward the living wage campaign – the campaign to get employers to pay workers a calculated wage higher than the minimum wage – is on the climb. A survey published today by financial services firm KPMG found that seven out of 10 UK adults would consciously shop in favour of a retail chain [...]
London mayor Boris Johnson backs paid internships in London at national minimum wage, “if not the London Living Wage” March 5, 2015 London mayor Boris Johnson has backed calls to take action on the scourge of unpaid internships blighting the prospects of young people in the capital. It's understood to be the first time the mayor has outlined his position on the issue, saying he supported paid internships and encouraged businesses employing interns to pay at least [...]
Petition prompts Premier League to advise clubs on living wage February 27, 2015 The Premier League has promised it will speak to its clubs about adopting the living wage, but insists its hands are tied when it comes to enforcement. After a petition for all Premier League staff to paid the living wage was signed over 62,000 times, the group agreed to meet with its creator [...]