TUC calls for £15 minimum wage
24 August 2022
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has released a report outlining the steps needed to achieve a £15 minimum wage.
The TUC report explores how stagnation, brought by the financial crash, has suppressed real wages. They call for a “macroeconomic approach” to boost growth, bringing median wages up to £20 an hour. This is the underpinning of the £15 minimum wage, which would be 75% of median wages, higher than the Low Pay Commission’s (LPC’s) current plan of two thirds of median pay by 2024.
By applying the annual wage growth achieved between 1997 and 2009, 3.8%, median wages of £20 per hour would be achieved in 2030. However, the TUC would like to see this target reached as quickly as possible.
Alongside this, The TUC is also calling for the minimum wage uprating, usually taking place in April, to be revised in October by at least the rate of inflation.
The recommendations from the full report:
The government must deliver:
- A macroeconomic approach which boosts demand and creates growth
- A plan to strengthen and extend collective bargaining across the economy including introducing fair pay agreements to set minimum pay and conditions across whole sectors
- A life-long learning and skills strategy to fill labour shortages, boost productivity and so workers can update their skills throughout their working life
- Corporate governance reform to prioritise long-term sustainable growth, rather than short-term focus on shareholder returns
- Industrial and trade policies to promote good jobs and ensure that businesses compete on a level playing field
- Making decent jobs a requirement of all government spending and procurement.
A plan for a £15 minimum wage
- The government and Low Pay Commission should set out a plan to achieve a £15 minimum wage.
- The government should set a target for the national minimum wage to reach 75 per cent of median wages.
- The government should deliver a return to normal pay growth. Wages need to grow by at least 3.8 per cent a year, as they did from 1997-2010.
- The Low Pay Commission should chart a prospective path to £15. The path should be underpinned by a return to pre-crisis wage growth of at least 3.8 per cent a year.
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