If you’re wondering why labour intensive industries like hospitality are seriously struggling, it now costs 63% more to employ someone on minimum wage compared to 5 years ago.

In 20/21 a 21 year old on 40 hours a week cost a business £18,197.

This year it costs £29,653.

This is driven by three things:
1. Mainly minimum wage going up 55% from £8.20 p/h to £12.71
2. Employer NIC going up to 15% from 13.8%
3. The threshold when a business starts paying Employer NIC moving down from £8,788 to £5,000.

Whilst it’s nice to put more money in employees pockets, UK job vacancies have just fallen to their lowest level since the pandemic. It’s pointless to set a minimum wage so high employers cannot afford it.