It’s not often that as a trade union we spend our time celebrating (we’re much more likely to be demanding), but that’s exactly what UNISON has been doing in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the national minimum wage.
10 years ago, for the first time, there was a statutory rate below which wages shouldn’t fall. Since then millions of low paid workers have benefited, two thirds of them women. The minimum wage didn’t stand still; since it was introduced we’ve seen it increase by nearly 60 per cent and well above the increase in median earnings, and the introduction of the youth rate to cover 16-17 year olds. On 6 April the Government will improve the enforcement of the national minimum wage by increasing the penalties against employers who flout the law, and there are Warwick 2 commitments to exclude tips being calculated for minimum wage purposes and to reduce the age the adult rate starts to 21.
10 years on it is easy to be complacent about the minimum wage, but it’s important to remember what a struggle it was to achieve. That struggle was a common theme amongst speakers at a reception UNISON held along with a number of partners in parliament on the 1 April. Dave Prentis (UNISON General Secretary), Judy Mallaber (Co-Chair UNISON Group of MPs) and Ian McCartney all spoke of the struggle to get the idea of a minimum wage heard even within the labour movement. Dave Prentis recalled how Rodney Bickerstaffe (Former UNISON/NUPE General Secretary) was heckled and booed at the STUC when moving a motion calling for a minimum wage as for many it was a threat to free collective bargaining.
Opposition within the movement was nothing compared to that of business leaders and the Tories. Harriet Harman spoke of the viscous attacks in the name of seminars organised by the Tories that she and Ian McCartney had to endure, and many MPs spoke of how they had to stay up all night as Tory amendments and speakers tried to filibuster the legislation out. Again they’re showing their true colours, with Christopher Chope’s Ten Minute Rule Bill which sought to allow an opt out from the minimum wage – a fatal blow to this key protection for the lowest paid. Whether or not a future Tory government has the confidence to scrap the minimum wage or not, it is clear it is not safe in their hands. Whether it is through increased exemptions and opt outs or just allowing the rate to stagnate and become worthless, the minimum wage would wither on the vine.
The minimum wage still has a long way to go to be all it could be. It is far off from what it should be, with UNISON calling for it to be a living wage of £7.45 by 2010. It also doesn’t cover younger workers equally, with the rate 16 and 17 year olds get still not getting the amount of the adult rate 10 years ago. Equal pay for equal work has long been an important principle, and UNISON’s research into the work done by young workers finds it is often responsible work, doing things such as opening and locking up premises or being responsible for cashing up. The Employers Forum on Age has supported equalising the minimum wage from 18 arguing that there is no objective justification for discriminating on the basis of age for these workers, and that the argument that younger workers get more training and development discriminates against older workers.
Apprentices are also let down by the current system as they are exempted if under 19 or in the first year of their apprenticeship. That means the unenforceable £95 a week LSC rate in England (and much less in other UK nations) leaves many apprentices dropping out for work without training because they cannot live on apprentice pay. This massively affects young women, who are predominantly found in the lowest paying apprenticeships.
In UNISON we’ve been working with a broad coalition of organisations in our celebrations including the Child Poverty Action Group, NUS, YWCA England & Wales, Institute of Employment Rights, British Youth Council, and TUC. Labour locally can do much more to work within our communities to promote the minimum wage, highlighting how to enforce your rights within it as well as the threat posed to it by the Tories.
And here’s to 10 more years.