Labour Manifesto: People earning less than the living wage

“Labour will boost the wages of 5.7 million people earning less than the living wage to £10 an hour by 2020.”

• In 2016 about 5.6 million people in the UK were earning below the Living Wage Foundation living wage, according to IHS Markit’s research for KPMG using data from the Office for National Statistics. That’s about 22% of UK employees.
• The Living Wage Foundation’s (LWF) voluntary living wage is set at £9.75 an hour in London and £8.45 across the rest of the UK.
• The LWF living wage is not the same as the National Living Wage. The National Living Wage is effectively a new minimum wage for people aged 25 and over of £7.50 an hour.
• Middle-income households benefit the most from increasing the minimum wage, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. It says that Labour’s plans will almost triple the proportion of employees covered by a minimum wage and will raise employers’ wage costs by £14 billion per year.