Newsflash: National minimum wage – increase recommended

What do we already know?

We let you know in our November 2014 Newsletter National Minimum Wage and Living Wage that UNISON had urged the Low Pay Commission to pay apprentices and workers aged under 21 in line with ‘adult’ workers over 21.

What’s new?

The Low Pay Commission has recommended that from 1 October 2015 the NMW should rise as follows:

• adult rate: be increased 3% to £6.70 per hour (a 20p increase);
• 18-20 year olds: increase by 3.3% to £5.30 an hour (a 17p increase);
• 16-17 year olds: increase by 2.2% to £3.87 an hour (an 8p increase);
• apprentice rate: increase by 2.6% to £2.80 an hour (a 7p increase).

It appears that the Commission has not accepted UNISON’s recommendations. Nonetheless, if the Government accept the adult rate rise this would be the largest rise since 2007, and would increase the number of jobs covered by the NMW to over 1.4 million.