GovWire

The research published today is an in-house report from the Low Pay Commission and a former Low Pay Commissioner. It looks at the impact of the National Living Wage (NLW) on a variety of labour market outcomes between its introduction in April 2016 and March 2020, the onset of the pandemic. It uses geography, gender, and age to identify different groups and then compares the labour market outcomes of those with high minimum wage coverage or high bite (areas with low average wages) with those groups which are less affected by the minimum wage.

This research finds that wages increased faster for those groups most affected by the minimum wage but that this had not led to detrimental effects on employment.