Unite the Union left 'underwhelmed' by National Minimum Wage rise
The chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced it'll increase from £8.90 to £9.50 an hour
Last updated 26th Oct 2021
Unite the Union has labelled an increase in the National Minimum Wage "underwhelming".
It comes after the Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed that in his budget tomorrow it would be raised from £8.90 to £9.50 an hour from April (for under 18s it goes from £4.62 to £4.81; 18 to 20 year olds £6.56 to £6.83 and for those aged 21-23 it rises from £8.36 to £9.18).
Mark Robinson is the union's regional co-ordinator for the East of England, he says, "The increase to the minimum wage is very underwhelming indeed.
"All of the rise will be eaten up by inflation, the cut to universal credit and the increased contribution to National Insurance. It will simply not help people with the increasing costs of living and increasing gas or electricity prices.
The chancellor Rishi Sunak said in a statement, “This is a government that is on the side of working people. This wage boost ensures we’re making work pay and keeps us on track to meet our target to end low pay by the end of this Parliament.
The boost, Mr. Robinson feels, will not alleviate the rising staff shortage crises in hospitality or in the care sector. "For years employers have been under-paying people. The damage that has been done from paying just the national minimum wage has come back to bite them.
"What we need now is to move away from paying this low wage in sectors like care, hospitality or warehousing and going to 10 or 13 pounds an hour to get to a stage where people can afford to live off it," he adds.
Minimum pay rates for those in the apprenticeship scheme will also increase from £4.31 to £4.80 an hour. Mr. Robinson says, "We're still looking at apprentice pay which is significantly lower than minimum wage. It has to be closer to the minimum wage amount to attract more people to these schemes and making it viable for them to spend two or three years retraining in a field that might be completely new to them."
He adds that it is particularly important to address the discrepancy in apprentice wage because those who want to use the scheme to shift careers will not find it financially beneficial.