Low Pay Commission call for research 2025
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-28)

Invitation to tender for research for the Low Pay Commission's 2025 report and beyond

Each year the Low Pay Commission (LPC) assesses the impact of increases in the National Minimum Wage (NMW), including the National Living Wage (NLW). We continuously monitor the impact of minimum wage upratings on the sectors and groups of workers most affected, and on the labour market more generally. We wish to commission a number of new research projects to inform its future work.

The new Government announced a new remit for the Low Pay Commission in July that covered living standards, maintaining at least a two-thirds floor and a commitment to a genuine living wage for all workers aged 18 and over. Our recommendations in October for the increase in the NLW, of 6.7 per cent to £12.21 in April 2025, should ensure that the NLW will be at least two-thirds of median hourly earnings and more than keep pace with inflation.

We are particularly interested in research that assesses the impact of the reduction in the age of entitlement to the NLW to 23 in April 2021 and to 21 in April 2024. Findings will help inform the pace of recommendations for further reductions to 18. In addition, we are interested in trying to develop a model to better help us understand the interaction between the NMW (and NLW) and the tax and benefit system. We are also keen to investigate how firms are coping with the latest increases in the NLW.

The Invitations to Tender are on Contracts Finder. They have a deadline of Monday 10 February 2025 at 14:00.

The Clarifications document, published on 28 January, summarises several small changes made to the ITT documents since their first publication on 9 January.

This page hosts documents for the following invitations to tender:

LPC2024/01 Low Pay Commission Call for Research on the impact of reducing the age of entitlement to the National Living Wage on young people.

This call is for funding up to £40,000 + VAT and is for one project only. The project will be completed by the autumn of 2025. It can be viewed on Contracts Finder at this link (https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/98735d07-0b98-46e5-83b2-81b497f330f9).

LPC2024/02 Low Pay Commission Call for Research on the impacts of changes to the National Minimum Wage, including the National Living Wage, on household incomes.

This call is for funding up to £40,000 + VAT and is for one project only. The project will be completed by the autumn of 2025. It can be viewed on Contracts Finder at this link (https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f90a82be-882c-4a86-a8e0-abe39240e9f1).

LPC2024/03 Low Pay Commission Call for Research on the Impacts of the National Minimum Wage, including the National Living Wage, on Businesses for the 2025 Report.

This call is for funding up to £40,000 + VAT and is for one project only. The project will be completed by the autumn of 2025. It is likely to be qualitative in nature. It can be viewed on Contracts Finder at this link (https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/70d3722b-b4ad-40b8-93e1-780ff364ba67).

LPC2024/04 Low Pay Commission Call for Research on the Impacts of the National Minimum Wage, including the National Living Wage, on Businesses for the 2025 and 2026 Reports.

This call is for funding up to £80,000 + VAT and is for one project only but is extended with the final report not expected until summer/autumn 2026. It is likely to be more quantitative in nature than the other project assessing impacts on business. It can be viewed on Contracts Finder at this link (https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/7cadc817-aa4a-45a7-aef5-114ea165fe89).

LPC2024/05 Low Pay Commission Open Call for Research on the Impacts of the National Minimum Wage, including the National Living Wage.

This call will fund up to three research projects for a budget of up to £100,000 + VAT in total – not each. The projects will be completed by the autumn of 2025. It can be viewed on Contracts Finder at this link (https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/a940f92a-8e6e-4463-a487-01fa041305ff).

In the open call, we have identified a number of areas of research that might be particularly interesting, but we would welcome any research that gives insight into the impact of the NMW, including the NLW. These insights will help in form our recommendations in our autumn 2025 Report and beyond. The identified areas include:

The nature, extent and experiences of one-sided flexibility among workers;

Further research of the impact of the NMW/NLW by protected characteristics to cover the most recent upratings;

Exploration of spatial differences in the impact of the NMW/NLW;

Exploring the impact of aligning the Apprentice Rate to the 16-17 Year Old Rate;

Exploring the earnings outcomes for different types of apprenticeships several years after completion, particularly those that make use of the apprentice minimum wage during the apprenticeship;

Comparisons of the impacts of large and small increases in the minimum wage;

Investigating the relationship between the NLW and the ‘gig economy’?; and the effects of wage compression at the economy-wide level and its possible effects on occupation choice and progression.

Information about previous LPC research projects is available on our website (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/low-pay-commission-research-2023).

Please direct all enquiries through xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx). Details of how to apply are given in the links provided for the individual calls. However, please let us know if the timescales and funding create any issues, particularly if you were seeking to undertake more long-term research.

The Standard Terms and Conditions (referred to in Schedule 6) can also be found in the links above.

Tenders must be sent to xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx) (copied to xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx)) by the Tender Submission Deadline, 14:00 on Monday 10 February 2025.