Just when struggling businesses didn’t think things could get much worse, the Government has today pushed ahead with a mandated rise in the minimum wage (confusingly rebranded by Osborne in 2015 as the ‘National Living Wage’) to almost £9 an hour. During this coronavirus crisis it seems irresponsible…

At a time when cash strapped firms are trying to retain workers, and others like delivery services and supermarkets want to hire some of the almost one million extra people who signed on to Universal Credit in the last two weeks, this hike in the price of labour is at odds with market realities. It will only lead to fewer hires, and more layoffs…

The move is utterly counterproductive. Today many minimum wage workers just being kept in employment will be furloughed or let go entirely from their firms – taking much bigger pay cuts in reality while the Government boasts of a fictional ‘pay rise’. When even the IFS says now is not the time for a government intervention like this, it really is a mistake…

The reason why massive job losses did not happen when the minimum wage was brought in at the turn of the century were; it excluded younger workers from the wage floor and the adult rate was set at or below the market clearing price. Raising the minimum wage at a time when we are losing jobs rapidly makes no sense.