Inside Rishi Sunak’s wage guarantee

In his third Covid bailout in just over a week, Chancellor Riski Sunak has shifted his focus from businesses to employees with an unprecedented three-month commitment to cover the bulk of pay for workers facing redundancy. He’ll cover up to 80 per cent of all salaried workers’ wages (up to £2,500 per month, around the UK’s medium income). This is a blanket pledge, an unprecedented intervention on the part of the government that will see the state pay private businesses – big and small – to retain their employees for the foreseeable future. 

The ‘Job Retentions Scheme’ is not targeted specifically at vulnerable sectors – presumably because any targeted scheme requires some form of means testing, which takes time. As a result, every employer can now apply to have a large part of their employees’ salaries covered by the state.