BORIS Johnson’s bold plans to raise the minimum to 10.50 an hour have been backed by experts – who say the job market will cope just fine.
Sajid Javid revealed his pledge to up the hourly wage by 2024 and expand it to everyone over 21, at the party’s conference last month.
But companies warned they would face huge 16billion hikes to their wage bill, which could have a knock on effect on jobs.
However, an independent review from the University of Masschusetts said the impact of the hike would not harm the economy.
It looked at minimum wages in a range of countries and found it had next to no impact on jobs, but significantly increased the earnings of the lowest paid.
Professor Arindrajit Dube said: “Based on the overall evidence, my report concludes that there is room for exploring a higher NLW in the UK up to two-thirds of the median wage.”
Mr Javid said: The evidence is clear that our approach is the right one.
“We will end low pay by putting the National Living Wage on a path to increase to 10.50 over the next five years.
“I thank Professor Dube for his important work and recommendations.
The move meansfour million people will be an average 4,000 better off each year before tax.
Mr Javid claimed the Tories were the real party of the workers now.
His low-pay action means minimum-wage workers will be paid 95p an hour more than they were expecting by 2024.
Before his intervention, the wage was forecast to be 9.55 an hour within five years.
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