Low Pay Commission Call for Research on the Impacts of the National Minimum Wage, including the National Living Wage, on Businesses for the 2025 Report

The Low Pay Commission (LPC) invites tenders from researchers to identify and assess the impact of recent increases to the National Living Wage on businesses, and provide findings to us by September 2025 at the very latest.

The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the impact of minimum wages, especially the National Living Wage, on businesses. We are particularly interested in the impacts of the more recent increases.

This research will contribute to our understanding of how firms are adjusting to the NLW and will complement the tender for longer-term research on the impact on businesses (LPC2024/04).

Potential areas of investigation might include the impact of the NLW and how firms are responding/adapting in terms of: profits; productivity; capital investment; training; prices; contracts and outsourcing; hours and employment; and differentials and pay progression.

We are interested in firms' approaches to coping with the recent increases in the NLW, especially the increase of 6.7 per cent to £12.21 that will be implemented in April 2025. At the same time, the recently announced changes to employers' National Insurance Contributions will also come into effect.

This project will provide evidence of how firms are coping with the recent increases in the NLW, and how they vary sectorally, by size of firm, by geography, and type of ownership.

This research would ideally use firm-level data available for the same firms over time. It might want to compare the behaviour of firms before and after the increase in April 2025. We are also open to other approaches that can capture the impacts on businesses. The findings will contribute to our understanding of how firms are adjusting to the NLW.

The full requirement is set out in Schedule 07 of this Invitation to Tender (LPC2024/03). Further information can be found on our website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/low-pay-commission-call-for-research-2025

You must submit your tender to tim.butcher@lowpay.gov.uk. It must arrive no later than 14:00 on 10 February 2025.