We make no secret of the fact that our advertising services are particularly effective with junior roles; roles which are currently paying thousands above the current minimum wage, but within three years, will be under the minimum wage!

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When discussing figures, I will use a working week of where employees work a 7.5 hour and 8 hour day, with 260 working days a year. This means a total of 1,950 and 2,080 hours a year respectively. I will also be using the minimum wage for adults over 23.

The current minimum wage is £9.50. an hour, meaning an annual salary of between £18,525 and £19,760.

The Effects On Recruitment

How will the increased minimum wage affect your recruitment strategy? According to the Resolution Foundation, based on a survey of 800 employers, only 27% have made staffing changes because of the change to the minimum wage. Incidentally, smaller employers (companies with less than 50 employees) were least affected by the changes.

What Will This Mean For Salaries Of Other Jobs?

With some junior graduate jobs currently being advertised at around £23,000 a year (which, provided the employee is under 23, is likely to be completely legal in the future). But will that level of salary be motiving enough for a graduate? Especially knowing that if they were only a few years older, they could be paid the same without their degree? With the low unemployment rate, it is very much an employee job market at the moment. You need to make your roles attractive to employees, which doesn’t necessarily mean through higher salaries; company life style is crucial for a lot millennials when choosing a job.

Read How To Attract Millennials And Gen Z Job Candidates.

According to savethestudent.org, the average graduate salary is £24,000 per annum with a lower end of £16,000. Gradudate-jobs.com support this, as they estimate the average graduate salary to be around £21,000 to £30,000.

Either way, the point which I am trying to make is that employers are going to have to consider considerably increasing their base salary levels to distinguish their graduate roles from other jobs that historically might have been paid £5,000-£7,000 less a year; is it reasonable for graduates to still expect that salary differential?

Going back to the original question of “How will the increased minimum wage affect your recruitment strategy”, for a lot of companies, I can imagine that remuneration packages will need to be re-evaluated at all levels of the business. We all know that 7.7% salary increases for all staff a year for three years is a particularly unlikely outcome!

For more specific average salary information, visit check a salary.com. To use a job profile template and post a job, visit these pages.