Welfare Reform on the Web (July 2011): Minimum Wage - UK

Coalition 'betrays anti-slavery' legacy over domestic workers

R. Williams

The Guardian, June 16th 2011, p. 12

The government has been accused of betraying Britain's 200-year history of fighting against slavery and of isolating itself on the world stage after refusing to back an international convention protecting domestic workers from exploitation. On the same day that the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, launched an inquiry by the Centre for Social Justice into the 'modern slavery' of trafficking, the coalition revealed it would abstain in the vote on the International Labour Organisation's convention covering domestic workers. The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills said it would not be ratifying the convention 'for the foreseeable future', so felt it would be wrong to vote for it at all.

National Minimum Wage: Low Pay Commission report 2011

Low Pay Commission

London: TSO, 2011 (Cm 8023)

The Low Pay Commission's remit is to monitor and evaluate the impact of the minimum wage, to consider its effect on small firms, low-paying sectors and different groups of workers, and to make recommendations for minimum wage rates. This report also reviews the arrangements for the Apprentice Rate, following its introduction in October 2010. It recommends:

• the Adult Rate of the National Minimum Wage should be increased by 15p to £6.08 an hour from 1 October 2011
• that the Youth Development Rate should be increased by 6p to £4.98 an hour
• that the 16–17 Year Old Rate should be increased by 4p to £3.68 an hour
• that the Apprentice Rate should be increased by 10p to £2.60 an hour.