To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to provide tax incentives to firms and employers paying the living wage to all their workers.
Answered on
15 July 2015
The Government wants to move from a low wage, high tax, high welfare society to a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare society. As the Chancellor announced at the Summer Budget, a new National Living Wage (NLW) will be introduced from April 2016. This will apply to all people over the age of 25, and will directly benefit 2¾ million people.
At the same time, the government is increasing the employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) employment allowance from £2000 to £3000. This will reduce the costs of employment for businesses and charities and will mean that a business can employ four people full time on NLW and pay no employer NICs.