United Kingdom - Union welcomes announced national minimum wage increase - March 25, 2010

The GMB union has welcomed the announcement of the government that it has accepted the recommendations from the Low Pay Commission (LPC) on the new rates for the National Minimum Wage. The new rates, which will come into force on 1 October 2010, will be UKP 5.93 (currently Euro 6.64) per hour for workers aged 21 and over (a 2.2% increase); UKP 4.92 (Euro 5.51) per hour for 18-20 year olds (plus 1.9%), and UKP 3.64 (Euro 4.07) per hour for 16-17 year olds (plus 2%). Paul Kenny, the union’s General Secretary, said: “The increase is much needed by the lowest paid in these difficult times and will help to boost consumer demand and thereby sustain the recovery underway.”

English: http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/latest_news/national_minimum_wage.aspx

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.