10 years to deliver wage increases

FSB: Firms would like 10 years to deliver wage increase The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) says many of its members would like a decade to implement Chancellor Sajid Javid’s plans to significantly increase the national minimum wage. The FSB’s employment policy chief Michael Mealing said: “Small businesses are agile and can adjust to change but they’re also fragile and need the maximum amount of time so that they can plan and change very much their cost base,” saying that while five years was reasonable, “I think many small businesses would consider ten years would have been better.” He also warned that for low-pay sectors “the advent of a very much higher national living wage, will make the problem in those sectors significantly worse”. Meanwhile, Craig Beaumont, the FSB's advocacy director, has said the Chancellor did not consult business groups on his plan to raise the national living wage. He said: “Government would normally reach out on something like this, to understand the impact of £16bn being shouldered by small businesses that they know are struggling with employment costs.”