Britain’s new minimum wage will be £6.50 an hour from October 1, 2014.
This represents an increase of 19p per hour for adults.
Young workers aged 18 to 20 years old will be giving an hourly rate rise of 10p to £5.03, 16 to 17-year-olds will get a 7p rise to £3.79, and the apprentice rate will go up by £2.73.
Employers who don’t ensure that workers receive the new minimums face penalties of up to £20,000 for each worker who is underpaid. HM Revenue & Customs said it was prepared to use its full range of powers against companies which fail to implement the increase.
Last tax year HMRC issued 652 penalties worth a total of £815,269. In addition to the fines, employers had to pay arrears last year totalling more than £4.6m to 22,000 wronged individuals.
The Government says that the increase is the first-real terms increase in the national minimum wage since the financial crisis hit in 2008. It reckons that more than one million people will see their incomes rise by up to £355 a year.
HMRC runs a Pay and Work Rights helpline and says that all calls to it will be investigated.
