Reeves’ Budget left businesses reeling from the increased cost of hiring staff. Retailers and high-street companies pointed out that companies with lower-wage staff were disproportionately affected by the National Minimum Wage and National Insurance hikes. Minimum wage employees probably don’t count as “working people” according to Labour…
Now fresh research from the Centre for Policy Studies confirms the scale of the cost increase. In 2024, an employer paid £1,617 in NICs for every employee on minimum wage. This year that figure will be £2,583. The total cost for businesses to employ a full-time minimum wage worker on staff will be a whopping £2,367 higher than last year…
The ‘tax wedge,’ which is the total tax paid by employers and employees, will hit an eye-watering 21.3% of salary this year for minimum wage staff – that’s thanks to the NIC rise and the commensurate reduction in the payment threshold. It has previously stood at 18% in 2010 before dropping to 11% in 2015, and was only 17.5% in 2024. Now, wages will go down where possible or firms will hire fewer staff. Talk about January blues…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”