Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed on Monday (October 2) that the national living wage will increase to £11 an hour from next April.
In his speech, he said that the change will “benefit two million of the lowest-paid workers.”
One person who will be negatively impacted by the change is the CEO of the Salford Survivor Project, Jane Gregory, who is currently working 60-80 hour weeks on minimum wage, and only being paid for 30 of those hours.
The project was founded in 2013 to support anyone affected by domestic or family abuse, and Jane’s small team of six are working desperately hard to keep the organisation going.
Jane said: “We’re all technically part-time and on minimum wage but half the time we’re doing voluntary unpaid work. The increase means we’ll have to decrease our hours and we’re already struggling to make ends meet as it is.
“Maintenance bills are almost double rent at the moment, and when you add wage increases onto that, you find yourself in a bad position.”
Jane also explained that, despite the organisation running for 10 years, they’ve only had funding for four years and funding for wages for one year.
However, she is determined to keep the charity running, even with the national living wage increase: “We’ve applied for grants, but I’m not going to be the type of person to ask for other people to pay our wages.
“All of us are in this to help people first and foremost and that’s why I started this in the first place.”
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