Minimum wage and Brexit

EQdnb

Apologies if this is the wrong place.

I know we can't know for sure at the moment, but will the plans to get the minimum wage up to £9 per hour by 2020 continue now we are leaving the EU or are all previous promises up in the air?

Thanks in advance

Forever

I would say everything is up in the air at the moment.

If May gets in, it looks like we may be going for an arrangement with the EU similar to Norway. This means we will still have freedom of movement, and access to the single market. If this does transpire, then any previous promises of a raise in the minimum wage is likely to still stand.

Any other deal, then who knows?

This is from my humble perspective anyway.

Stylehutz

People voting out would have been aware that the minimum wage was going to remain wouldn't they? Just like they thought the NHS was going to get 350 million a week also:(

50Twuncle

I don't honestly believe that anything to do with minimum wages will change from the governments original plans - due to BREXIT - Because :
1. This is so small fry and they have more important issues to deal with
and 2. We are STILL in the EEC and will be liable to EEC rules and standards until someone says anything differently - which will not happen for (at least) 2 years !!

Nicki

I may be wrong but I thought minimum wage was a domestic initiative of the last Labour government , so leaving the EU wouldn't affect it, though always open to the government to repeal it or not keep promises for increases.

The working time directive, entitlement to statutory paid holidays and paid maternity and paternity leave on the other hand are I think all EU requirements, and so the Brexiters have sold those entitlements in return for whatever benefits they think leaving the EU will bring

HappyMJ

EQdnb wrote: »

Apologies if this is the wrong place.

I know we can't know for sure at the moment, but will the plans to get the minimum wage up to £9 per hour by 2020 continue now we are leaving the EU or are all previous promises up in the air?

Thanks in advance

All promises made by a politician aren't real promises anyway. You can't believe everything...anything...they say.

They did not promise that the National Minimum Wage would be £9 by 2020.

The National Minimum Wage rate is actually £6.70 per hour. That did not increase at all in April of this year which actually decreased in real terms the money available to workers aged between 21 and 24. The tax changes to the Personal Allowance has given them an extra £1.54 per week which was less than inflation so they are worse off than they were before when the Minimum Wage was increased each year in line with inflation.

The National Living Wage of £7.20 paid to workers 25 and over will continue to increase in line with inflation at the very least. It should get to £9 by 2020.

phill99

Minimum wage has nothing to do with the EU. It's was introduced by the UK Government and affects the UK only.

sangie595

Nicki wrote: »

I may be wrong but I thought minimum wage was a domestic initiative of the last Labour government , so leaving the EU wouldn't affect it, though always open to the government to repeal it or not keep promises for increases.

The working time directive, entitlement to statutory paid holidays and paid maternity and paternity leave on the other hand are I think all EU requirements, and so the Brexiters have sold those entitlements in return for whatever benefits they think leaving the EU will bring

Probably mostly a good guess. Minimum wage levels are domestic policy. They can be changed like any other law, and the levels are set by regulation. I would expect that any serious damage to the economy would result in them being lowered. The government can do that at any time provided they follow the relevant UK law.

Statutory paid holidays are actually also UK law, because, believe it or not, ours are better than many European countries. The EU level is set at a minimum of 20 days. Maternity and paternity, also UK law. Whilst maternity leave is common in Europe, paternity leave is not. Employers have never liked the working times regulations, and those are European. I expect them to go. They may be replaced, but by a watered down version that gives more per to the employers to dictate hours of work.

Whilst it is true that the European courts have ruled in ways that have introduced some new employment laws in the UK which have favored workers, in fact, across the board, UK workers still have some of the best laws in Europe. There are single areas where one or another country does better, but taken as a whole, UK employment law is relatively good. The reason for this is because our unions have fought long and hard for these things. They did this before the EU. They did it in the EU ( who did you think funded most of those cases that got to European courts?). They'll do it after the EU.

How well they can do that will depend on everyone. Bash the unions, rubbish them, and don't join, and you are helping the employers to break the unions, who really are the only defence for workers. If the union isn't doing a good job, stop whinging and do something about it. We always need stewards and officials - if you can all do a better job then prove it! The union is the membership. Not the officials.

The laws are not the big issue now. The economy is. What is coming may make their 2009 recession look mild. And employers will be ready to pounce on workers, not because they need too, but because they want to. Nothing must damage their profits. And if your job is in the way of profit, then your job will be gone. Prepare to dig in now.

Crazy_Jamie

Nicki wrote: »

The working time directive, entitlement to statutory paid holidays and paid maternity and paternity leave on the other hand are I think all EU requirements, and so the Brexiters have sold those entitlements in return for whatever benefits they think leaving the EU will bring

Not necessarily. You are right that protections afforded to workers through EU law may potentially be under threat, but it is far from automatic. To give one example, the Working Time Regulations implement the Working Time Directive. On leaving the EU we will no longer be bound by the Working Time Directive but the Working Time Regulations will still perfectly good law until they are amended or repealed. The same applies to the majority of our laws that originate from the EU. There will need to be a wholesale review of legislation that originates from or is dependent on EU legislation as part of the process of us leaving. Such a review will be both time consuming and expensive. I therefore wouldn't expect much in the way of notable changes in the short term at least.

FredG

Forever wrote: »

I would say everything is up in the air at the moment.

If May gets in, it looks like we may be going for an arrangement with the EU similar to Norway. This means we will still have freedom of movement, and access to the single market. If this does transpire, then any previous promises of a raise in the minimum wage is likely to still stand.

Any other deal, then who knows?

This is from my humble perspective anyway.

Just had to pick something up in this post - we currently don't have freedom of movement from our borders' side, we're one of the few Schengen countries. Ironically we're likely to lose this right in order to access the single market.

spadoosh

Nicki wrote: »

I may be wrong but I thought minimum wage was a domestic initiative of the last Labour government , so leaving the EU wouldn't affect it, though always open to the government to repeal it or not keep promises for increases.

The working time directive, entitlement to statutory paid holidays and paid maternity and paternity leave on the other hand are I think all EU requirements, and so the Brexiters have sold those entitlements in return for whatever benefits they think leaving the EU will bring

How can you possibly think like that?

"Your leaving?, well we're taking our rules with us!"

Its quite simple really. If the government tries to override benefits on things like parental leave, holiday pay etc you are allowed to get annoyed. Your allowed to voice this displeasure and ask them to make rules appropriate for the people. If they do no listen you take advantage of the fact that we live in a democracy and vote for a party that does offer fairer employment benefits.

Not to mention the EU post all the rules they make on the internet. crazy idea if we like one, copy and paste.

Its not like they can turn around to us and tell us what parts of employment law we can and cant use. Thats exactly why we left them!


Why is everyone (to one side) expecting that we're all about to act like cavemen?