A third of employers support upping minimum wage

Almost
a third of employers would support a national minimum wage above the £4.20
hourly rate which is due to take effect from October 2002, according to a
survey by IRS Employment Review.

Just
under half of the organisations polled supported an hourly rate of £4.20, while
nearly 30 per cent supported a higher amount.

But
while there is seemingly little resistance to October’s 10p an hour increase,
employers are far from satisfied with the way the NMW works in practice.

Six
out of 10 respondents believe that the single national rate should be replaced
by a range of minimum pay levels that take account of regional or industry
differences.

Almost
70 per cent of respondents also support annual uprating of the statutory pay
floor with more than 40 per cent in favour of a direct link to inflation.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

A
third of firms want to see the minimum wage linked to annual average earnings
growth.

By Ben Willmott