What is the National Living Wage (NLW)?
A new rate of minimum pay for people aged 25 and over, initially set at £7.20 from April 2016 and rising to £9 by by 2020.
Why has Chancellor George Osborne brought in the NLW?
The Conservatives want to move from a "low wage, high tax, high welfare economy" to a "higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare" one.
What does it mean for the Minimum Wage.
The NLW replaces the Minimum Wage, currently set at £6.50 and rising to £6.70 in October, for people aged 25 and over. Those aged under 25 will still receive the minimum wage rate, with the youth rate for those aged between 18 and 21 set at £5.13.
Who will benefit?
Accountants KPMG say that more than 400,000 Scots will see an increase in their pay packets. Across the UK around 2.7 million workers will be affected.
What will they actually get?
A worker aged 25 or over receiving the Minimum Wage will get a pay rise of 50p an hour, from £6.70 to £7.20.
Is it compulsory, and does the Government enforce it?
All businesses will have to pay at least the NLW to workers aged 25 and over. Complaints about low pay will be handled by HM Revenue and Customs. The maximum fine for anyone failing to pay the statutory level increases from £5,000 to £20,000 in February last year.
Is it really a Living Wage?
Not quite. It's not as high as the rate recommended by the Living Wage Foundation, which called for a rate of £7.85 an hour. However, it has been welcomed by campaigners as a good start.
What will it cost business?
Payrolls will rise, but some of the cost has been offset by a cut to Corporation Tax of 18 per cent and changes to the National Insurance Contributions Employment Allowance.
How does the Tory's NLW compare to other parties pre-election proposals?
Surprisingly well. The £9 top rate is higher than both Labour's £8 proposal and the SNP's call for an £8.70 minimum wage by 2020. In fact, It's just £1 less that the £10 rate advocated by the Scottish Socialist Party.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article