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Chancellor George Osborne has announced the launch of a new National Living Wage that will be launched from April next year.
Delivering his emergency budget speech earlier today, Osborne announced that all businesses across the UK will have to pay working people over the age of 25 at least £7.20 an hour from April 2016, rising to £9 an hour by 2020.
In his budget speech announcing the first all-Conservative budget since 1996, Osborne said: “Britain deserves a pay rise and Britain is getting a pay rise”. He added that studies by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) claimed there would only be a “fractional impact” on jobs as a result.
He also announced that business owners will see their national insurance bill cut by another £1,000 from April 2016, as the Employment Allowance rises from £2,000 to £3,000, and corporation tax will be cut to 19% in 2017 and 18% in 2020.
Meanwhile, it was also announced that three million new apprenticeships will be created by 2020, which will be funded by a levy on large employers.
