I was pleased to announce that the National Minimum Wage will increase from €9.55 per hour to €9.80 per hour with effect from the 1st January 2019. This builds on the 2018 increase from €9.25 per hour and will benefit over 150,000 employees. According to CSO figures, on average in 2017, employees earning the National Minimum Wage or less represented 7.4% of all employees.
Across schemes in my Department, the use of earnings disregards and tapers in the assessment of earnings, and the provision of in-work supports such as the Working Family Payment and the Back to Work Family Dividend scheme, ensure that a person will be better off taking up employment.
While my Department's scheme's earnings disregards are not linked to the minimum wage, I was pleased to announce on Budget Day that the earnings disregards for the One-Parent Family Payment and Jobseeker's Transitional schemes will increase by €20 per week, from €130 to €150 per week, from the end of March 2019. This will bring these earnings disregards to their highest ever level.
In addition, the €5 increase in the maximum weekly rates of payment from end-March will also work to increase the level of means a person can have, including from earnings, and still qualify for a payment. For instance, a single person in receipt of Jobseeker's Allowance (JA) and working 18 hours on the minimum wage over 3 days currently qualifies for a JA payment of €132 per week plus earnings of €171.90 per week (total income of €303.90 per week). With the increase in the weekly rates of payment and in the minimum wage, the person will qualify for a JA payment of €134 per week plus weekly earnings of €176.40 (total income of €310.40). This is an increase of €6.50 per week, or 2.1%.