From today full-time workers in the UK will get a £900 cash increase on the current National Minimum Wage.
This means that in some parts of the country, a fifth of the entire workforce will benefit from the new £7.20 per hour wage increase.
First announced in the Summer Budget last year, the new National Living Wage is said to deliver a key part of the government’s plan to move towards a higher wage economy.
The increase will mean that from today around 900,000 women and half a million men will receive an immediate pay rise in their hourly earnings.
By 2020 this will rise to 1.9 million women and 1 million men.
The government also hope that the new National Living Wage will eradicate the gender pay gap for the lowest paid by 2020.
Over the next five years, women earning the National Living Wage are expected to see their pay rise by over a quarter and growing more than 1.5 times faster than the salary of an average worker.
“I sad last year when I announced plans for the National Living Wage that Britain deserved a pay rise,” said George Osborne. “Today, I’m proud to say Britain is getting one.
“So I’m delighted that 1.3 million people across Britain will benefit from the biggest wage increase in eight years that to the new National Living Wage.
“The National Living Wage will play a central role in moving Britain to a higher wage, lower tax, and lower welfare economy. It will also mark the end of the gender pay gap for some of our lowest paid and hardest working people.”
