PRESS RELEASE 28 September 1998

Low Pay at the Fringe

The low level of the national minimum wage in 1999 will deny six million employees the right to a decent wage as we enter the next millennium. At the Labour party fringe today the Low Pay Unit will argue that the government should rethink its policy on the level of minimum wage and its interaction with its wider social and economic policy.

The national minimum wage of £3.60 an hour for adults aged 22 and over which will to come into force from April next year is too low to have any decisive impact on poverty, discrimination and inequality. The latest United Nations Human Development Report claims that Britain's poor are worse off than ever before.

Low pay remains the single most important cause of poverty in the UK:

• Nearly 4 million of the 14 million living in poverty are in households where there is an income from employment.
• The UK has a bigger problem of low pay and gender inequality than any other EU state and a widening divide between the rich and the poor.
• Wage inequality in the UK is worse now than it was a century ago. The relative earnings of the lowest paid male manual workers are now lower than in 1886.

Bharti Patel Director of the Low Pay Unit said
"Whilst £3.60 an hour will tackle the worst cases of exploitation - and the Low Pay Unit has hundreds of such cases - the level will do nothing for the increasing numbers of people paid below a decent living wage. We will pay a heavy price in the longer term for crushing the hopes of millions people on low pay, pushing them into poorly paid jobs. We urge the government to increase the minimum rate to at least £4.61 an hour."

Speaking at the Fringe, on Monday 28 September at the Empire Hotel, Blackpool at 1 pm, will be Rodney Bickerstaffe (UNISON), Martin Wilson (British Youth Council), Chris Pond MP and Bharti Patel (Low Pay Unit).

For further information call Bharti Patel: on 0171 713 7616 (work) or 0788 764 3750 (mobile).