The founder and chairman of budget pub chain JD Wetherspoon has warned that minimum wage is making lowering people’s living standards by limiting companies’ ability to increase pay and hire.
Sir Tim Martin argued that rather than serve as a safety net to protect workers, minimum wage is now doing more harm than good, following increased under both the prior Conservative government and this Labour government.
But, in an interview with the Telegraph, Sir Tim said: “The minimum wage seems to be lowering the standards of living by reducing investment and job vacancies and by increasing pay for new starters at the expense of experienced staff.
“It was a supposed to be a safety net but it’s turned into a competition between political parties as to who will offer the biggest rise.
Most recently, the government confirmed the hourly rate for over-21s will rise by 50p to £12.71, while workers aged 18-20 will see an 85p rise to £10.85, from April 2026.
A decade ago, the minimum wage was set at £7.20, with the policy enacted in 1999 to abolish low pay.
Criticising the rise
Sir Tim’s comments make him the latest senior figure to scrutinise the standards of minimum wage, after Reeve’s hike was argued to be driving up employers’ labour costs.
Scrutiny has picked up steam, as the UK continues to grapple with a cooling job market, with the latest figures revealing headline unemployment has hit a five year of 5.2 per cent.
Inflation-busting increases has led to businesses hiring fewer staff, especially younger and less experienced workers, with the hospitality sector particularly affected as pubs battled rising business rates.
But from April 2026, pubs in England will receive a 15 per cent discount on business rates following uproar.
Official figures showed that the number of payrolled employees fell by 124,000 in the 12 months to January.
Sir Tim has also previously backed Reform’s proposed pub support package, aruging it would “utterly transform” the pub landscape.
In a stock exchange release, Martin said Reform’s proposals would offer pubs “tax parity” with supermarkets.
He said: “By eliminating the tax differential between supermarkets and the hospitality industry, and restoring margins to devastated businesses, these changes would enable pubs to regain some, or all, of their lost trade.”
Reform’s £2.3bn pub package includes a pledge to cut VAT in the hospitality sector by 10 per cent as well as beer duty by 10 per cent.
The party has also promised to reverse Labour’s increase in employers’ national insurance contributions and gradually remove business rates for pubs.
Youth unemployment
The government has also pledged to abolish what it deemed “discriminatory age bands” by scrapping the youth rate of minimum wage, which has existed since the system was enacted in 1999.
But the government is now believed to be reviewing the decision amid fears it will worsen youth unemployment.
Graduates have increasingly been voicing concerns about the job market, as high competition, reduced hiring in certain sectors and a decrease in vacancies has left many facing unemployment.
Coupled with employers economic concerns and technological changes, entry level roles in particular have suffered.
Alan Morgan, the boss of Bella Italia owner Big Table Group, warned that the government’s goal of abolishing the youth rate of minimum wage would lead to fewer jobs.
Morgan said: “We completely agree with giving people the same pay for the same experience and outputs.
“However, by making the pay rates the same for age groups who have less or no experience, it does create a risk of employers reducing the amount of younger people they employ.
Jeremy Hunt, abolished the youth rate for 21 and 22 year olds during his stint as chancellor in 2024.
