NI to be particularly affected by ‘Living Wage’

The arrival of the ‘National Living Wage’ on Friday April 1 will hit local retail particularly hard, according to an association representing NI traders.

From tomorrow, it will be against the law to pay workers aged 25 or over less than £7.20 per hour. Some 1.3 million workers are expected to benefit across the UK.

However, the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) said the percentage of small retailers in Northern Ireland will mean local trade is particularly affected.

NIIRTA’s chief executive Glyn Roberts said: “Our members will be facing a nearly 50 per cent increase in their wages bills as a result of the Living Wage and Auto-Enrolment, not to mention many of them paying up to 100 per cent extra in their rates bill.

“Given that 99 per cent of all NI business is small, the impact of the National Living Wage will have a particularly detrimental impact on our indigenous business base.

Mr Roberts said extra costs and red tape were having a “cumulative impact”, narrowing margins and restricting growth potential.

“A number of our members have indicated that expansion plans for their businesses are being put on hold as they struggle to afford to pay these crippling costs,” he said.

“Unless the issue of high costs is addressed, the creation of jobs and new investment will be reduced at time when government needs to be doing more to support our private sector.”

The NIIRTA chief added that the association was not opposed to the so-called National Living Wage, but argued small traders needed tax reliefs to alleviate the wage bill leap.

“NIIRTA has already outlined radical reform in Business Rates in our Programme for Government and will continue to engage with local political parties to ensure their Assembly Election manifestos include this policy priority,” he said.