Minimum wage boosts workers' pay

Minimum wage boosts workers' pay

Low-paid workers have received a boost in income of £4.3bn over the past 12 months thanks to the national minimum wage, research showed today.

A study by the GMB union showed that the minimum hourly rate of £5.05 helped workers in every region of the UK. An estimated 1.3 million workers will also benefit from the next increase, which will see the rate rise to £5.35 an hour from October 1, the report said.

GMB general secretary, Paul Kenny, said: "The national minimum wage has had a big impact on the incomes of the lowest paid workers in the UK. It has also benefited the economy, as there are now a million more jobs in the UK.

"The extra 30p per hour in October will be a further boost. GMB consider that the government has scope to raise the rate to £6 per hour. Doing so would renew what has been the 'jewel in its policy crown' and would help reconnect the party to its core voters."

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But the union called for the rate to be upped to £6-an-hour and for the gap with the UK's average hourly rate, which now stands at £13.10, to be closed.

Since it was introduced in 1999, a large slice of the minimum wage increases had been to keep up with inflation, said the GMB.

Mr Kenny added: "Raising the minimum wage to £6 per hour would add £3.1bn per year to the pay packets of the lowest paid for the UK as a whole.

"When compared with last year's increase in bonuses from £19bn to £21bn to some thousands of City of London fat cats, this is an affordable amount."

In August, HM Revenue and Customs revealed that certain employers had been illegally refusing to pay workers the minimum wage on the basis that they are disabled, over the age of 65 and, in one case, because they considered the employee "a total waste of space."

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