City Research Online

Abstract

In April 2016, the National Living Wage (NLW) raised the statutory wage floor for employees in the UK aged 25 and above by 50 pence per hour. This uprating was almost double any in the previous decade and expanded the share of jobs covered by the wage floor by around 50 per cent. Using a difference-in-differences approach with linked employer-employee data from the UK’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, we examine how the introduction and uprating of the NLW affected the likelihood of minimum-wage employees changing firms. We find some evidence that the NLW reduced the rate of job-to-job transitions among such workers, consistent with predictions that an increase in the wage floor discourages job search. However, we find no evidence that the NLW affected differences in job mobility between minimum wage workers and their co-workers in the same firm. Together, these findings suggest that the increased wage floor made quits less attractive to minimum-wage workers in firms with limited opportunities for progression.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Singleton, C., Bryson, A., Phan, V. , Ritchie, F., Stokes, L., Whittard, D. & Forth, J. (2025). The Impact of a Rising Wage Floor on Labour Mobility across Firms. British Journal of Industrial Relations, which will be published in final form at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14678543. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Publisher Keywords:	National Living Wage, On-the-job search, Low pay, UK labour market
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
Departments:	Bayes Business School Bayes Business School > Management
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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