15 years ago today - the first national minimum wage

One of the most enduring achievements of the 1997-2001 Labour Government was the enactment on 1 April 1999 of the UK’s first national minimum wage. This followed a prolonged campaign led by NUPE, a predecessor union of UNISON. Former General Secretary Rodney Bickerstaffe said ‘whilst we are delighted that we have for the first time, after a 100-year battle to get it, a minimum wage, that level is far, far too low. The argument that a higher minimum wage will cost jobs doesn't stand up in an area like the north east which has always suffered high unemployment.’ UNISON marked the historic occasion on Saturday 10 April 1999 with a national march from Gateshead to Newcastle when thousands march in support of the union's demand for a living wage:
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/1999/04/feature/uk9904196f.htm

Care workers must be paid for travel time

UNISON has welcomed a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision – which confirmed that under the National Minimum Wage (NMW), hourly-paid care workers must be paid the NMW, both for travel time between assignments and also for time spent sleeping on overnight stays - as setting a “very clear benchmark” for what is expected of employers in the care sector. This is a massive boost for UNISON’s campaign in support of an ethical care charter which is attracting growing support from councils across the UK:
http://www.lrdpublications.org.uk/publications.php?pub=LR&iss=1705&id=idm7223928
http://www.unison.org.uk/upload/sharepoint/Research%20Material/Final%20Ethical%20Care%20Charter%20PDF.pdf

Time to stand firm on local government pay

#njcpay2014 Last Friday, the Local Government Employers excelled themselves by cancelling a meeting with the Joint Secretaries to make this year’s pay offer for local government and school support workers. With 1 April as the date for a pay rise, they suggested a meeting on 1 May, after the announcement of the new National Minimum Wage (NMW), which takes effect from October! They also hinted at a 1% pay ‘envelope’, from which they would have to pay the NMW before thinking about a rise for anyone above the lowest pay point!

Britain below the breadline - life on the minimum wage

As pressure mounts for a significant hike in the minimum wage rate, the Guardian reports on a visit by the Low Pay Commission to the West Midlands to hear evidence from low paid workers about life on poverty pay - including powerful testimony from a union steward - 'Having enough to eat and pay the bills is a struggle. The essentials are getting more and more expensive. I haven't had a holiday in years. I've been saving supermarket vouchers to pay for the Christmas turkey and my husband [who is retired] has given me part of his heating allowance for presents'
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/29/low-pay-commission-tours-uk-minimum-wage

Hundreds of thousands trapped in swamp of minimum wage work

A new report by the Resolution Foundation confirms that a quarter of those on the national minimum wage (NMW) have been stuck on the rate for at least five years. Women make up 73% of all those who have only held minimum wage jobs in the past five years and the report finds that ‘for parts of the UK's minimum wage workforce – in particular women, part-time workers and those who ended up or remained in wholesale and retail roles – the minimum wage has been a reality for an extended period of time’
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/26/national-minimum-wage-earners

Stand up for union rights, civil rights, people’s rights

#TUC13 “If unions were denied a political voice: We wouldn't have had the 1944 Education Act; we wouldn't have the NHS; we wouldn't have equal pay for women; we wouldn't have a minimum wage. And remember who first exposed the scandal of tax avoidance? Who first raised the alarm about falling living standards? And who first blew the whistle on zero-hours? You can see why some people want to shut us up. That is why we must now stand up for our rights. Not just union rights. Civil rights. People's rights” said Frances O’Grady in a scathing attack on the government’s Lobbying Bill during her General Secretary’s speech at TUC Congress yesterday:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/tuc-22581-f0.cfm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVovy0_otFk&feature=youtu.be

Minimum Wage or Living Wage? Time to close the gap

Professor George Bain, who was the first chair of the Low Pay Commission, is quoted in the Independent as saying that the national minimum wage is 'no longer working' because its value has fallen as increases have consistently been outstripped by inflation.
    A similar case was made in more trenchant terms on this blog back in December 2010 by former UNISON General Secretary Rodney Bickerstaffe.

Minimum Wage as the going rate – it wasn’t meant to be like this

The UK is at risk of creating a two-tier labour market in which growing numbers of workers earn little more than the legal national minimum wage of £6.19 per hour. A report from the Resolution Foundation has found that almost one in ten jobs (2.4m) now pays within 50p of the minimum wage as the labour market has become increasingly bottom-heavy. George Bain, the founding chair of the Low Pay Commission, has warned in a Guardian article that ‘in a way the policy has been a victim of its own success. The wide support means the policy has settled down into a premature middle age, with little thinking about how it could do more to tackle low pay’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jul/05/minimum-wage-risks-going-rate

14 years of NMW & the enduring problem of low pay

According to a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report published yesterday, the national minimum wage (NMW) of £6.19 compares with a wage of £8.62 to £9.91 necessary to provide a socially acceptable standard of living.
     Alan Manning of the LSE acknowledges the enduring problem of low pay despite the existence of the NMW for the past 14 years and reports on an initiative to revitalise the minimum wage concept including possible sector specific strategies in areas like retail and social care where poverty pay is endemic:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/34433

We must fight any change to the National Minimum Wage

Influential Tories have never reconciled themselves to the national minimum wage, warns John Prescott writing in yesterday's Sunday Mirror. He reminds us that it was a Conservative administration which abolished Wages Councils in 1993 and urges a fightback against any attempt to cutback the minimum wage. The Government 'wants to look at freezing or cutting the national minimum wage, claiming that convenience stores say it’s leading them to axe jobs and reduce hours. The bottom line is they want cheaper and cheaper labour. This is short-sighted. By raising the minimum wage, the Treasury would receive more tax revenues, reduce welfare payments and boost the economy when we desperately need growth. The minimum wage is a floor on pay. No one wants to live on a floor. But if you freeze or take this floor away, hundreds of thousands of workers will crash into poverty. We must fight any change.'
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-prescott-wage-war-tories-1816307

Hands Off the National Minimum Wage

14 years ago this week, on 1 April 1999, Labour introduced the UK's first ever national minimum wage (NMW) with an adult hourly rate of £3.60. Today it stands at £6.19 and is uprated annually on the recommendation of the Low Pay Commission. Now the Con Dems are insisting that the supposedly impartial body changes its terms of reference to consider the impact on ‘employment and the economy’ before agreeing future increases - leading to press speculation of a freeze or cut in the adult minimum wage rate (the 18 to 20 rate was frozen last October):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9965039/Minimum-wage-could-be-frozen-or-cut-if-it-starts-to-cost-jobs-or-damage-economy-Government-suggests.html
TULO has responded quickly and launched a petition calling on the Government to back off from its plans:
http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/protecttheminimumwage

A policy of solidarity to counter the forces of austerity‏

@USILive Union Solidarity International has podcasted an informative web conference with Professor James K Galbraith on the global economic crisis, in which the progressive economic thinker makes a compelling case for a higher minimum wage and stronger collective bargaining ... ‘as part of a strategy to counter the forces of austerity with a policy of solidarity and mutual support’:
http://usilive.org/web-chat-with-james-k-galbraith/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+USiPodcast+%28USi+%C2%BB+Podcast%29

UK Government calls for National Minimum Wage to wither on the vine

In a ministerial foreword to evidence submitted to the Low Pay Commission, the UK Government reiterates its commitment to the National Minimum Wage (NMW), but at the same time argues that NMW rates (currently only £6.19 for 21 and over) should be held down relative to earnings: ‘in order to reduce the ‘bite’ of the NMW, it would be necessary for the NMW to grow by less than average earnings’
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/70257/bis-13-P158-national-minimum-wage-final-government-evidence-to-low-pay-commission-2012.pdf

The public sector pay premium – something worth defending

Unions have long advanced the concept, based on sound evidence, of a Union Advantage - foremost of which is the union wage premium. According to the TUC, on average union members earn 12.5% more per hour than non-members. Given that union membership density in the public sector is 56% compared to 14% in the private sector it is perhaps self evident that a wage premium should exist in the public sector.

National Minimum Wage should rise to a Living Wage - UNISON

UNISON's submission to the Low Pay Commission for 2013/14 on National Minimum Wage rates states that in October 2013 there should be a 'substantial increase to reflect the increased cost of living' and beyond 2013 'the National Minimum Wage should move in stages towards a living wage for all workers' - in current terms this would mean a £1.26 increase in the rate outside of London
http://www.unison.org.uk/file/UNISON%20submission%20to%20the%20LPC%20Sept%202012%20FINAL.pdf

Minimum wages in Europe squeezed by austerity

The European Trade Union Institute has published an interesting paper 'Minimum wages in Europe under austerity', which shows that across EU member states minimum wages have either risen only very slightly, been completely frozen or, in the recent case of Greece, cut at the behest of the IMF/EU by 22% (for young people by 32%):  http://www.etui.org/Publications2/Policy-Briefs/European-Economic-Employment-and-Social-Policy/Minimum-wages-in-Europe-under-austerity

Raise the minimum wage for under 21's!

UNISON Northern Region Young Members have launched an e-petition to raise the minimum wage for under 21 year olds, which the government unfairly froze at £4.98 in the recent budget, whilst at the same time giving tax cuts to those earning over £150,000. Please sign and circulate it to everyone you know! The target is 100,000 signatures so that the demand will be debated in parliament...
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33865

CBI cheers on as inflation erodes value of minimum wage

Even with this year’s increase in the adult rate, the minimum wage will be lower in real terms than it was in 2004, according to new research by the Resolution Foundation. Inflation has outstripped both minimum wage growth and median income growth in recent years, leading to substantially declining income for workers. The FT reports the delight of the well heeled CBI business lobby group at this sorry situation: “Retailers, care homes, hospitality and other consumer-facing businesses are experiencing particularly tough conditions, so it’s good that the LPC listened to the CBI’s advice and made sure its recommendations preserve jobs and support the fragile recovery.” http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e8b2f1ee-87dc-11e1-8a47-00144feab49a.html#axzz1sGoZoZ56

The Downside of the German Economy - The Rise of the 'Mini Jobs'

UNISON activists representing members in the cleaning, catering and low wage sector will be well aware of the new employment patterns of workers with multi jobs and more than one employer. Current austerity strategists have been raising the example of the German economy to contrast its relative ability to survive compared with other advanced economies, including the UK. But in Germany – where there is no minimum wage at all, rising job insecurity and even the Social Democrats have been supporting massive cuts in welfare – the so called German success is being paid for by the low paid:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/insight-dark-side-germanys-jobs-miracle-105821742.html

IMF sets sights on a reduced minimum wage in Greece

As Greece and the IMF continue negotiations on a debt deal to avert economic collapse, the Washington Post reports that Chief IMF inspector Poul Thomsen is seeking to capitalise on the crisis by pressing for lower employment costs, notably a slashing of the minimum wage – a sure fire way of worsening the recession in a country where 1 in 5 workers are already wageless: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/markets/greece-imf-expect-crucial-deals-on-debt-swap-and-new-bailout-to-be-completed-soon/2012/02/01/gIQANRlahQ_story.html