The Government has announced increases to the minimum wage to take effect from October. The basic minimum wage will increase from £5.80 to £5.93, an increase of just over 2% and the starting age will be 21, not 22. There are similar increases to the rates for younger workers and a new apprenticeship rate.
OK, I know it's not much, but I still think it's a mistake. The minimum wage keeps people who could and would work for less out of the jobs market. Minimum wage earners are disproportionally likely to work for small companies, which is where we are expecting our growth to come from.
A lot of political bullets are going to have to be bitten during the austerity measures and this should have been one of them.
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