National Minimum Wage

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

In 1999, the national minimum wage lifted 1.5 million people out of poverty pay. As has been said, it was one of the greatest achievements of Labour in power. I am proud to say that my predecessor, Stephen Byers, then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, was instrumental in introducing this policy, which has made a difference to the lives of so many low-paid workers in the last 15 years. More than 5% of workers earn the minimum wage, and I am pleased to see that, for some, thanks to the work of unions such as GMB and Unison, this has been upgraded to a living wage. If we are serious that work should pay for everyone, including young people, this must surely be achieved for all workers in future, which is Labour’s ambition.

This debate acknowledges the introduction of the minimum wage and its benefits, but it remains shocking to see that figures from the Office for National Statistics show that last year, 279,000 people received less than the minimum wage. I was disappointed to find that 15,000 of those workers were in the north-east. Those figures show why it is so important to make sure that employers—even in these hard times—comply with the law.

The general-secretary of the TUC has today welcomed the increases in penalties for employers who fail to pay the minimum wage. She cautioned, however, that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs must have the appropriate resources to enforce those penalties. In fact, the Public and Commercial Services Union has pointed out that there are only 90 full-time staff employed as compliance officers. Although the union welcomes the increase in penalties, it believes that the emphasis needs to be on the worker. The priority should be making sure that employees get the pay they are owed, rather than concentrating only on fining the employer.

Last year, HMRC managed to get £4 million for workers, but that sum would have been more if HMRC had not had a budget underspend. Since 2010, HMRC has underspent on the national minimum wage enforcement budget, year on year. I agree with PCS that HMRC should have more money for enforcement, but that the Department must not be allowed to underspend in order to meet Government savings targets, which negate those enforcement efforts. I hope that the Government will heed the union and the TUC on this matter.

Finally, let me raise an issue on behalf of Longbenton air cadets—the top air cadets in the country. Before Christmas, I attended an evening with the cadets about the working of Parliament, in which a role-play Commons debate was acted out. Young people’s pay was debated, and they asked me to raise the issue of apprentices’ wages, which are only £2.68 an hour. Those who have apprenticeships are grateful, but they would like to be paid a more realistic wage. After all, who of us in this House could live on £2.68 an hour if we were young today?