10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE

That this House welcomes the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the National Minimum Wage on 1 April 2009; applauds the fact that employees in more than one million jobs have benefited, two-thirds of them women; believes that annual uprating and effective enforcement are the key to its continued success; regards the current economic climate as an opportunity to increase the spending power of the low paid; calls for an end to discriminatory lower age rates for young workers; and further calls on the Low Pay Commission and Government to end the exemption of some apprenticeships from the national minimum wage.