The National Minimum Living Wage

For some time now there has been general confusion within the labour market as to the minimum wage (statutory requirement) and the Living Wage (Voluntary)
 
The Living Wage started with clients and contractors in the Docklands agreeing a minimum wage to be introduced to stop the ongoing discrepancies in wage rates which enabled quality of service to be the benchmark rather than cost. (A point that seems to be lost on a lot of contractors who bemoan the introduction of a level playing ground)
 
The Government has introduced the National Minimum Living Wage from the 1st of April which did not cause us any difficulties as we have always paid wages above the minimum and with the support of our clients concentrated on quality of service to maintain and develop our business.