Published date: 9 January 2025

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Closing: 10 February 2025, 2pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • Research and development services and related consultancy services - 73000000

Location of contract

E14 4PU

Value of contract

£20,000 to £80,000

Procurement reference

LPC2024/04

Published date

9 January 2025

Closing date

10 February 2025

Closing time

2pm

Contract start date

3 March 2025

Contract end date

31 December 2026

Contract type

Supply contract

Procedure type

Open procedure (below threshold)

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

This procedure can be used for procurements below the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

The Low Pay Commission (LPC) invites tenders from researchers to identify and assess the impact of recent increases to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage (NLW) on businesses. This is a longer-term project that complements another, shorter-term project (LPC2024/03) we are commissioning that will also look at business impacts

The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the impact of minimum wages, especially the National Living Wage, on businesses. We are particularly interested in the cumulative impacts of recent increases.

The Low Pay Commission invites tenders for research that will provide initial evidence by September 2025 and more substantive findings by October 2026.

This research will contribute to our understanding of how firms are adjusting to the NLW. Potential areas of investigation might include the impact of the NLW and how firms are responding/adapting in terms of: profits; productivity; capital investment; training; prices; contracts and outsourcing; hours and employment; and differentials and pay progression.

We are interested in firms' approaches in the short-term and their longer-term plans. We are also interested in whether these responses have changed over time as the minimum wage has increased. Researchers might consider different time periods, such as post-financial crisis and pre-2016; 2016-2020 (the introduction of the NLW and its initial target of 60 per cent of median wages); and post-2020 (the two-thirds target).

This project will provide evidence of how firms are coping with the recent increases in the NLW, whether there are any barriers to further progression, and how they vary sectorally, by size of firm, by geography, and type of ownership.

We are also interested in whether there has been any change to the characteristics of jobs (e.g. evidence of changes to tasks, or the merging/flexibility of roles/tasks); and the characteristics of the workforce (e.g. changes to the age structure or greater use of apprentices).

This research would ideally use firm-level data available for the same firms over time. It might want to compare the behaviour of firms before and after the increase in April 2025. We are also open to other approaches that can capture the impacts on businesses. The findings will contribute to our understanding of how firms are adjusting to the NLW.

The full requirement is set out in Schedule 07 of this Invitation to Tender (LPC2024/04). Further information can be found on our website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/low-pay-commission-call-for-research-2025

You must submit your tender to tim.butcher@lowpay.gov.uk. It must arrive no later than 14:00 on 10 February 2025.

More information

Links

About the buyer

Contact name

Tim Butcher

Address

GROUND FLOOR, 10 SOUTH COLONNADE
LONDON
E14 4PU
England

Telephone

07741 617057

Email

tim.butcher@lowpay.gov.uk

Website

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/low-pay-commission-call-for-research-2025