20th anniversary of Labour's introduction of the minimum wage

Today is 20th anniversary of the Low Pay Commission which was set up by the Labour Government to establish the minimum wage rates. Before the Minimum Wage it was legal to advertise jobs paying just £1 or £2 an hour. Critics predicted a minimum wage would destroy jobs but they were wrong.At first it covered just 600,000 workers. Now it covers 2 million workers, most of them women.The rate is now £8.21 an hour. The Low Pay Commission estimates that for the lowest paid 1% of workers in full time jobs, the minimum wage means they get paid £5,000 a year more than they would if it had not been introduced.The Minimum Wage is one of the most important labour market changes in recent decades. It put a floor of decency under wages and today it benefits around 2 million workers. Having a minimum wage has meant the pay of the lowest paid workers has risen faster than average pay since it was introduced. The problem of low pay has certainly not been resolved and I know a lot of people still struggle to make ends meet, but its introduction was a huge step forward and something the whole country should value.

Posted by Pat McFadden on Monday, April 1, 2019