Executive summary

Aims and objectives of counterfactual wage research

Over the summer, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) conducted an independent review of the methodology used by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for estimating the cost to business of upratings to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) rates, focusing on the counterfactual underpinning the costs estimate.