Network Journal 2007 Issue 6 Nov/Dec

Call for improved minimum wage

Usdaw has called for an hourly rate of £6 as part of its evidence to the Government’s Low Pay Commission (LPC), the body that recommends changes to the National Minimum Wage (NMW).

The submission also dismisses employers' claims that the NMW will result in job losses quoting the Government's own figures which show the number of jobs in retail has grown since the introduction of the NMW from 2,455,000 in 1999 to 2,592,000 in 2007, a 5.6 per cent increase.

The evidence also lists the reasons why businesses fail and the NMW is absent from it. Cashflow problems, poor management, and poor quality goods are more likely to see companies go bankrupt.

Low pay affects millions of workers in the UK. Usdaw believes setting the NMW at £6 would begin to make in-roads into the problems of low pay. Most low paid workers are in the unorganised sector and the LPC's recommendations are the only way these workers have any chance of improving their wages.

For years now Usdaw has also argued that the adult rate should be paid at 18 and not 22. This still remains one of the union's main targets.

Usdaw's research shows that there are now more than 346,000 18-21 year-olds earning less than the minimum wage adult rate.

Usdaw's main points to the LPC are listed below.

• The adult hourly rate should be increased to more than £6 by October 2008.
• The adult rate should be paid from the age of 18 rather than 22 as the current rules state.
• As a first step, the LPC should reiterate its recommendation that the NMW should be paid from age 21.
• The rate for young workers should be 80 per cent of the adult age 18 rate.
• The LPC should reiterate its call for a review of the apprentice pay exemptions.
• The LPC, as part of its on-going research programme, should commission a study looking at the impact the changes to annual leave have had.
• The Government should continue to improve the NMW enforcement process, in particular giving a more central role to trade unions. In the longer term the NMW enforcement process may need to become part of a much wider Enforcement Rights Agency.
• The LPC should outline the difficulties that a regional minimum wage, as opposed to a NMW, would bring.
• The LPC should rule out automatic indexation based on productivity or median earnings as a way of determining future increases in the NMW.

www.usdaw.org.uk/politics



2007 Issue 6 Nov/Dec Contents | Previous Issues


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