MINISTERS are considering delaying plans to raise the minimum wage for 18 to 20-year-olds to match the adult rate, despite Labour’s election manifesto commitment to remove “discretionary age bands”.
Government sources confirmed to the BBC that ministers are interested in slowing down the rise, though they are unlikely to reverse the commitment entirely. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK government’s Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said it remained government policy to equalise the minimum wage.
The discussion comes after new job figures showed young people are the most likely to struggle in the UK job market. Unemployment among 16 to 24-year-olds stands at 16.1 per cent, compared to a national average of 5.1 per cent.
On Tuesday, it was confirmed unemployment had risen to a near five-year high, with the jobless rate among young people at its worst level for more than a decade.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the unemployment rate rose to 5.2 per cent in the three months to December, up from 5.1 per cent in the three months to November.
Under existing rules, people aged over 21 must be paid £12.21 an hour, while 18 to 20-year-olds receive £10 an hour.
Some business figures have argued that increasing minimum wage rates has raised costs and discouraged hiring. The Times first reported that ministers were weighing up whether to drop the pledge.
Luke Johnson, the former chairman of Pizza Express and a director of Gail’s Bakery and Brompton Bicycles, said: “The government is making it more expensive and more risky to employ people and so I think entrepreneurs and managers will not create the jobs.”
He added: “The mood amongst employers and those who invest in this country is the darkest I have ever seen.”
But Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB Union, said it was “nonsense” to suggest equalising rates would destroy jobs.
