ASI Budget Reaction features in City AM and The Telegraph:

Deputy Director Sam Bowman has written on the impact of the Chancellor's new living wage on employment for CityAM.

There is lots of research into what the minimum wage does to jobs. Of the 103 papers reviewed by economists David Neumark and William Wascher in a 2006 study, most of them showed that raising the minimum wage reduces long-term employment. Of the 33 most methodologically robust studies, 28 (85 per cent) demonstrated this.

The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that the new living wage will see 60,000 job losses and a £1.5bn cost to the economy overall. This will be among over 25s, who may be their families’ main breadwinners. Until now, the Low Pay Commission has raised the minimum wage very slowly to avoid job losses, and it has often been very restrained in doing so. Those days are now over.

The people who point out that 1997’s minimum wage introduction did not lead to substantial job losses, without considering all the other evidence, are embarrassing themselves. Based on the evidence, there is a consensus: minimum wage hikes cost jobs.

Read the full article here.

Director of The Entrepreneurs Network Philip Salter's comments on the impact of the Budget on entrepreneurs are in the Telegraph.

Philip Salter, director of The Entrepreneurs Network, said: "The Government should leave the decision of what level to set any wage floors in the hands of the experts at the Low Pay Commission, so that business owners aren't forced to sack employees if payroll costs go up too much.

"If the Chancellor wanted to help the low paid, he should have slashed Employers' National Insurance, 70pc of which is paid for by the employees, rather than just increase the Employment Allowance from £2,000 to £3,000 a year."

Read the full article here.