Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the number of workers in Copeland that have benefited from the recent living wage update.

Through the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW), the Government ensures that the lowest paid in our society are fairly rewarded for their work. April 2019’s increase to the NLW will see nearly 1.8 million workers in the UK receive a 4.9% pay rise. In the North West, 222,000 workers will directly benefit from this increase in the NLW. A full-time worker on the NLW will now be more than £2,750 better off over the year compared to when it was first announced in 2015.

The most recent available data shows an estimated 3,500 workers in Copeland who were on the NLW or NMW.