The Low Pay Commission (LPC) has launched a consultation on the effects of the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) to inform its recommendations to the government on the April 2022 rates.  

The LPC’s recommendations on the NLW will be guided by the government’s target for the rate to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024, taking account of prevailing economic conditions. For the remaining NMW rates, its recommendations will be based on its usual approach of raising the rate as high as possible without damaging employment. In particular, the LPC is seeking evidence and views on:

• the affordability and effects of an increase in April 2022 to an NLW rate of £9.42 per hour (which is its current central projection for next April’s rate)
• the NLW pathway to 2024 – based on forecasts, its current central projection for the April 2024 NLW rate is £10.33 per hour, and the age threshold for the NLW is also due to come down to age 21 by 2024 at the latest
• the effects of recent increases in the NLW/NMW rates, and their impacts in particular on employment and hours, pay and benefits, productivity, prices and profits.

In addition, section 57(3) of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 sets out an exemption from the NLW/NMW for work done by a worker in relation to an employer’s family household. This exemption applies if the worker lives in the employer’s family home and is treated as a member of the family. The LPC has been asked by the government to gather evidence on the application of this exemption and to present findings on its use, its impact on the labour market and its impacts from an equalities standpoint. The LPC is therefore seeking evidence on this live-in domestic worker exemption from affected workers, employers and stakeholders with experience of its use and consequences.

The consultation closes on 18 June 2021.

Source: New feed