Research and analysis
Low Pay Commission research 2021
This page contains the research reports commissioned by the Low Pay Commission which were used to inform our 2021 Report.
Documents
Details
Alongside our annual report, we are publishing research projects we commissioned to inform the recommendations we made in October 2021. These projects explored the effects of the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) on a number of different areas.
The reports we are publishing today are:
- A report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) on the distributional and employment impacts of increases in the NLW from its introduction in 2016 to prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. This large-scale evaluation responds to recommendations made by Professor Arin Dube in his 2019 review of the international evidence.
- A report from Incomes Data Research sharing insights from 16 organisations in four sectors (hospitality, leisure, retail and social care) on the effects of the minimum wage, including the extension of the NLW to 23 and 24 year olds.
- A report by Andrew E. Clarke (Paris School of Economics) , Maria Cotofan (London School of Economics) and Richard Layard (London School of Economics) on the full returns to low-wage jobs. The report analyses low-paid sectors, measuring both wages and non-wage benefits and how these contribute to labour market inequality.
- A report by Andreas Georgiadis (Brunel University London) and Maria del Carmen Franco Gavonel (University of Exeter) examining the NLW’s impacts on the adult social care sector in England in the context of Covid-19 and Brexit.
- A report by Judith Delaney and Kerry Papps (University of Bath) analysing the effects of the NMW on firms’ hiring behaviour, primarily drawing on data scraped weekly from two online job advert services.
- A report by Abigail McKnight (London School of Economics) looking at the impact of the NMW and NLW on employment retention and wage progression by ethnicity, disability and gender.
- A report by Nikhil Datta and Stephen Machin using data from a single large employer to look at the impacts of a higher than mandated ‘living wage’.
Updates to this page
Published 9 December 2021
Last updated 24 May 2023 + show all updates
Last updated 24 May 2023 + show all updates
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Two additional reports published from researchers at the London School of Economics: the first by Abigail McKnight, the second by Nikhil Datta and Stephen Machin.
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Published 'Hiring behaviour and the National Minimum Wage' by Delaney and Papps.
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First published.