Martin Lewis says millions of workers will get a pay rise this year. n her Autumn Budget last October, Labour Party Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed minimum wage will rise by 6.7% from this April, the BBC and ITV star Mr Lewis has explained.
Workers who are aged 21 and over will see their wages rise from: £11.44 an hour to £12.21 an hour while workers aged 18 to 20 will see wages rise from £8.60 an hour to £10 an hour. Workers aged Under 18 will see wages rise from £6.40 an hour to £7.55 an hour.
Apprentices will see wages rise from £6.40 an hour to £7.55 an hour. Money Saving Expert explained: “If you’re paid the legal minimum (as 1.6 million people in the UK are) there’s no wriggle room in your salary. So any mistakes, like unpaid working time or wage deductions, put you at risk of being underpaid.
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“Many who believe they’re on minimum wage are in reality being paid LESS than they should be – the Low Pay Commission estimates over 370,000 people were underpaid in April 2024. While bad bosses refusing to pay proper wages are an issue, most of the time underpayments happen by mistake.”
Martin added: “Back in 2015, watching the Budget I was shocked to hear then-Chancellor George Osborne announce he was renaming the minimum wage for then over-25s (now over-21s) as the ‘national living wage’. I spoke out at the time. This was stealing the brand of the Living Wage Foundation – a charity I’ve long supported.
“The Living Wage Foundation each year announces its REAL living wage, which is a voluntary employers’ wage scheme, based on an assessment of the actual cost of living. Currently it is set at £12.60 per hour for the whole of the UK, except London, and £13.85 per hour in London.
“Over 15,000 UK employers have pledged to pay the real living wage. You can check whether yours is one of them on the Living Wage Foundation website. So when we refer to the living wage on the site, we mean the real living wage, not the attempt at spinning the national minimum wage.”