The minimum wage.. place your bets

Milarky

This spring will see an announcment on the level of the national minimum wage (currently £5.35) from October this year and the following year. These reccomendations come out every other year from the government's own stuffed shirt 'Low Pay Commission' which confers with 'stakeholders' and other self-appointed representatives of employers.

Amyway it's time to speculate on which two magic numbers they might come up with...

I'll plump for:

£5.65 (up 30p - 5.6%) in October 2007, then

£6.05 (up 40 - 7.0% and a totemic breach of the £6 mark!) in October 2008

They seem to be going for numbers ending '5' rather than '0' , so I chosen these increment as my own guesses.

Just a bit of fun - anyone want to try to second guess the LPC decision before it comes out?

immoral_angeluk

I reckon £5.50 in Oct 07, and £5.95 in 08.

Astaroth

not sure why stakeholders required ''s - it is a very well understood and widely used term

Milarky

News just it.. and it isnt good

Press Notice

£5.52 per hour for 'adults'!

Here's what the Chair of the LPC had the 'nerve' to say:

"Whilst preparing this report, our analysis of the evidence showed that recent upratings of the minimum wage have continued to benefit many low-paid workers and helped to narrow the gender pay gap. The bite of the minimum wage has clearly increased and this year the economic indicators and labour market data presented a rather more mixed picture than in previous years. There has been a small fall in the number of jobs in the low-paying sectors, for the first time since the introduction of the minimum wage. Given these and other factors, we concluded that a cautious approach to our recommended minimum wage upratings was advisable. Nevertheless, our recommendations represent an increase for the lowest paid workers of 3.2 per cent. Taken together with last October’s uprating, this amounts to an increase of 9.3 per cent over two years.

“As the bite of the minimum wage increases, it becomes increasingly important to take decisions based on the most up to date data available. That is why our recommendations are for October 2007 alone. Our present view is that the increases we are likely to recommend for 2008 in our next report will be around the predicted rise in average earnings, but much will depend on what happens between then and now in the economy and the labour market

"3.2 percent"... and inflation in reality is what? 4%, 5%, 6%?

immoral_angeluk

oooh I was only 2p out!