NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE UPRATING

That this House welcomes the 10th anniversary of the National Minimum Wage introduced by this Labour Government in 1999; further welcomes recent Government measures to extend the minimum wage to apprentices and to exclude tips from minimum wage calculations; notes that the Low Pay Commission states that the minimum wage has had no discernible adverse impact, in contrast to the dire warnings of the Conservative Party at the time of its introduction; is therefore disappointed that this year's uprating of the minimum wage is the lowest on record, barely over one per cent. and between 4p and 7p for different age groups; and calls on the Government to end the age discrimination in the minimum wage and to legislate so that the minimum wage should always increase above both inflation and average earnings so as to narrow the inequality gap.