Argos named and shamed among minimum wage offenders

UK minimum wage to rise: what are the parties promising?

17 March

The government has announced that the national minimum wage will go up by 20p in October, benefitting 1.4 million people.

David Cameron said the increase would offer "more financial security" to workers, and "a better future" for Britain, the BBC reports.

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What will happen to minimum wage rates in October?

The UK minimum wage will increase to:

• £6.70 an hour for over 21-year olds (20p increase)
• £5.30 an hour for 18- to 20-year-olds (17p increase)
• £3.87 an hour for under 18-year-olds (8p increase)
• £3.30 for apprentices (57p increase – the biggest ever rise)

The 3 per cent increase represents the largest real-terms rise since 2008, but with the general election fast approaching, other party leaders are quick to argue that it doesn't go far enough.

So what do the other parties want?

Labour:

Ed Miliband has pledged to increase the minimum wage to £8.00 by 2020, saying that the £1.50 per hour increase would be worth £3,000 a year to the lowest paid workers. The Labour leader told the BBC that his party would show "how we can become a country that rewards hard work once again".

Liberal Democrats

Nick Clegg's party has promised workers on minimum wage that they would be exempt from paying tax if the Lib Dems win the general election in May.

The Green Party

Natalie Bennet has called for the statutory minimum wage to be immediately lifted to Living Wage levels and for a £10 per hour minimum wage for all workers by 2020. The Green Party also promises that all workers aged over 16 will be paid the minimum wage and the age-based differentials will be abolished.

Ukip

Nigel Farage has also said his party will raise the income tax threshold so those earning the minimum wage will no longer have to pay tax. "Giving people no incentive to get off benefit makes no sense," he said.

SNP

The Scottish National Party has made repeated calls for national minimum wage rates to be devolved to Scotland so that they can be increased. "The Westminster parties have shown that they simply can't be trusted to stand up for low-paid workers," the party's MSP Sandra White told The Scotsman.

And what about the trade unions?

The general secretary of the TUC, Frances O'Grady, said that the latest rate increases go "nowhere near enough to end in-work poverty", and should have been "much bolder".

Meanwhile, Britain's biggest trade union has argued that the minimum wage should be urgently increased to £7.81 an hour, a move which would make 4.6 million low-paid workers better off by £1,400 a year.

"This is both affordable for employers, would in fact create not cost jobs, and is a great deal for the national finances. It need not be put off any longer," Unite's general secretary Len McCluskey told The Guardian last year.