Government confirms minimum wage for under-18s
Trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt has confirmed that 16 and
17-year-olds will receive a legal minimum wage of £3 per hour, from
October 2004.
The Government will also raise the adult minimum wage rate from £4.50
an hour to £4.85 an hour, and the development rate (for 18-21 year
olds) from £3.80 to £4.10 an hour, from October.
The increase in the adult rate is set to benefit 1.6 million UK workers.
Ms Hewitt said, ‘The minimum wage is a policy to be proud of. In
the five years since its introduction a million low-paid workers have
enjoyed significant increases in their wage packets each and every year’.
However, business groups have given mixed reactions to the news.
John Cridland, deputy director general of the Confederation of British
Industry, said, ‘The Government has taken a risk with the impact
on business and we will be monitoring the outcome extremely carefully’.
The British Chambers of Commerce also expressed reservations. David Frost,
BCC director general, said, ‘Minimum wage rises of 35% over four
years are becoming an unmanageable cost on business: it cannot continue
to increase at three times the rate of inflation’.
|
