By: CITY A.M
January 04, 2018
Higher minimum wage levels could tempt British employers to automate more jobs, risking a rise in unemployment, respected economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) will today warn.
In research to be published today, the IFS will call for “extremely careful monitoring” of the effects of government increases to the minimum wage as more jobs which could be replaced by machines fall into the law’s scope.
The proportion of over-25 employees on the minimum wage will have tripled between 2015 and 2020 to reach 12 per cent, the IFS estimates. Both main political parties in the UK plan to increase the minimum wage further from its current £7.20 per hour for over-25s.