Employers may be sleep-walking into one of the biggest shake-ups in pay yet seen since the inflation levels of the 1970s a 7½% increase. Businesses that run care homes for the elderly are at risk of going bankrupt from a double blow of the imminent increases in the minimum wage and tighter immigration rules, reports the Financial Times. And that is just the minimum wage risk, not the living wage risk.
It shouldn’t be doom and gloom. Richard Evans, office senior partner, KPMG suggests: “For some time it was easy for businesses to hide behind the argument that increased wages hit their bottom line, but there is ample evidence to suggest the opposite – in the shape of higher retention and higher productivity. While it may not be possible for every business, it is certainly not impossible to explore the feasibility of paying the Living Wage and recognising the long-term benefits it brings.”
Last month’s blog gives some ideas as to how to cope, and we should be interested in any responses.