The Low Pay Commission has recommended that the adult minimum wage should be increased by 3% on 1 October 2014, from £6.31 to £6.50.
The Executive summary of the Low Pay Commission 2014 report stated that this could increase the number of jobs covered by the minimum wage by more than a third to around 1.25 million.
The government is expected to publish the full report during the next few weeks.
David Norgrove, chair of the Low Pay Commission, said: “We have had to balance the risk of recommending more than business and the economy can afford, bearing in mind the pressures on low-paying sectors and small firms, against the risk of doing too little to start to restore the real value of the earnings of the lowest paid.
“We do believe, however, that the economic recovery should this year allow an increase in the real value of the minimum wage, the first increase for at least five years.
“Provided the economy continues to improve, we expect to recommend further progressive real increases in the value of the minimum wage, restoring and then surpassing its previous highest level, so that 2014 will mark the start of a new phase – of bigger increases than in recent years – in the work of the commission.”
