The Chancellor lifted the minimum hourly pay rate from £6.70 to £7.20 an hour in April.
But three months later, economists fear its worth could plummet thanks to Britain’s shock decision to quit the EU.
The Resolution Foundation says the Out vote “is likely to have a major impact on the labour market in the coming months and years”.
A report claims that “although there is huge uncertainty regarding the short-to-medium term effect on real wage growth, with some projections more encouraging than others, the real-terms value of the NLW in 2020 could be up to 40p lower than had been expected before the Brexit vote”.
The rate is due to climb to £9 an hour by 2020, but will by worth less than it would have been if the UK had stayed in the bloc because sterling is set to continue falling, according to the study.
Resolution Foundation policy analyst Conor D’Arcy said: “ Brexit is likely to reshape the landscape in which many low-paying sectors operate.”
The Foundation also says firms are hiking prices or slashing profits rather than cutting jobs to deal with the introduction of the new legal pay floor three months ago.
Its report is the first major survey of how businesses have reacted to the introduction of the national living wage – in reality a re-branded minimum wage - since it launched on April 1.
The poll of 500 companies found 35% believed the higher legal pay rate had bumped up their wage bill
Another 16% of firms expected the NLW to increase their wage bill in the future.
For firms affected by the new rate, 36% have raised prices, with 29% cutting profit margins.
Crucially, the Resolution Foundation ays there was “little evidence” the new legal minimum has “had any significant employment effect among lower paid workers”.
Bosses warned in the run-up to April that they may have to axe staff to keep overall costs down.
The Mirror has previously revealed how a string of well-known firms have blamed the new wage rate as they slashed employee benefits and extra pay for working antisocial hours.
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