An independent report on the impacts of minimum wages, to inform
the UK government's decisions on the remit of the Low Pay
Commission beyond 2020.
From:
Department for Business
and Trade, HM
Treasury and Department for Business,
Energy & Industrial Strategy
Published 4 November 2019
Last updated 12 January 2026 — See all updates
Documents
Impacts of minimum wages: review
of the international evidence
Ref: ISBN 978-1-912809-89-9, PU2287
PDF, 1.73
MB, 72 pages
Technical Annex A: Evidence from
seven US States on the impact of high minimum wages
PDF, 734
KB, 12 pages
Technical Annex B: Estimating
the impact of the 2016 introduction of the National Living
Wage
PDF, 533
KB, 8 pages
Details
The government asked Professor Arindrajit Dube to consider
international evidence on the impacts of minimum wages and the
implications for UK policy.
Professor Dube's report reviews the international evidence on the
impacts of minimum wages, as well as recent research documenting
the impact of the National Living Wage (NLW) in the UK. The report finds
that, overall, the most up to date body of research from US, UK
and other developed countries points to a very muted effect of
minimum wages on employment, while significantly increasing the
earnings of low paid workers. Importantly, this was found to be
the case even for the most recent ambitious policies.
The report concludes that, based on the overall weight of the
available evidence, there is room for exploring a more
ambitious NLW remit in the UK in the
coming years, in the range of 60% to two-thirds of median hourly
earnings. However, the report also concludes that given that the
evidence base is still developing, it would also be prudent to
accompany more ambitious minimum wages with a clear mandate that
the Low Pay Commission can use to implement, evaluate and
recalibrate any proposed changes to the NLW, thereby designing in
responsiveness to any unforeseen impacts if required. To assist
this, it recommends that government should look to improve the
evidence base and the quality of data used in assessing the
impact of minimum wages.
