Tahola found that the increase in the National Living Wage to £7.50 for over 25s on April 1, and taking into account the government’s aim to increase the figure to £9 by 2020, could mean an annual increase of £100,912.50 for operators with 30 full-time staff.
Simon Blackbourne, co-founder and commercial director of Tahola, said: “Based on an operator with 30 full time staff receiving the new National Living Wage of £9 per hour and a 3% employer pension contribution, our data mixologists have identified that annual pension cost alone could be set to rise an additional £8,900 per year - combining this cost with increased wages could amount to a staggering additional cost of over £109,000 by 2020.”
Tahola has urged the hospitality industry to be mindful of macro-economic impacts, which also includes rising food inflation, potential reduction in size of the labour market, and business rates increases.
Blackbourne said: “The hospitality industry can be wildly unpredictable, and Brexit is only compounding the sector’s sense of uncertainty when it comes to changes in Government legislation.
“Just looking at the labour cost changes we already know about, there’s a strong indication that the cost of a full time employee could rise in the near future.”