WORCESTERSHIRE’s lowest paid workers will benefit from a pay rise next year after the Government revealed the minimum wage would rise to £9.50 an hour.
The Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to confirm at Wednesday’s Budget and Spending Review that the National Living Wage will increase from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour from April 1, 2022.
The 59p an hour boost will mean a full-time worker on the National Living Wage will see a pay rise of more than £1,000 a year.
The National Living Wage was introduced in 2016 and sets the minimum hourly pay a person over the age of 23 can earn when working.
Mr Sunak is also set to announce a wage rise for young people under the age of 23. For those aged 21-22 the National Minimum Wage rate increases to £9.18 an hour, up from £8.36 – a 82p increase.
He said the increase “ensures we’re making work pay and keeps us on track to meet our target to end low pay by the end of this Parliament”.
But Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Bridget Phillipson, described it as an “underwhelming offer” that would be mostly swallowed up by tax rises, universal credit cuts and higher energy bills.
