Minimum wage rates to increase

Minimum wage rates to increase

The government has recently announced that the minimum wage rates will increase on 1st October 2010.

Two important changes to the regulations will also take effect on that date: 

• The adult rate will be payable at the age of 21, not 22 as it has been;
• Apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship or under 19 will be entitled to £2.50 per hour. (The government recommends that apprentices who do not qualify for the minimum wage receive at least the Lower Earnings Limit figure, £97 per week - to 6th April 2011.)

The increases to the rates from 1st October 2010 are as follows:

• Workers aged 21 years and over will be entitled to £5.93 per hour.
• Workers aged 21 and over who are in the first six months of working for a new employer and are undergoing training for a recognised qualification will get £4.92 per hour.
• Workers aged 18-20 will be entitled to £4.92 per hour.
• Young workers aged 16-17 who have reached the end of compulsory education will be entitled to £3.64 per hour. 

The Greater Manchester Pay and Employment Rights Advice Service (GMPERAS) has campaigned for the lowering of the age at which the adult rate is paid, and for apprentices to be included, since the introduction of the minimum wage in 1999.

Lesley Hunter, joint coordinator at GMPERAS, said that GMPERAS was “very pleased to see that the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations have been implemented”.

Ms Hunter added: “Let’s hope that the new government continues to uprate the minimum wage rates on a yearly basis as did the previous government. Yearly uprating of the minimum wage rates over the years has given low-paid and vulnerable workers across the region, and the UK, some security in knowing that the government cares about their terms and conditions of employment and knows that they need to be protected against exploitation by unscrupulous employers”.