Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/670/12003
From The Socialist newspaper, 11 May 2011
Poverty minimum wage
A Labour Research Department publication has stated that the TUC welcomed the government's confirmation that the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for workers aged 21 and over will go up by 2.5%. This really is the TUC clutching at straws because this percentage increase amounts to a 15p increase in the hourly rate from October taking the NMW to £6.08.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said that the increases showed that the government "understands the NMW must remain an important part of working life". He apparently went on to point out that there was evidence that workers on the NMW spent all their pay rises where they work and live.
Someone should point out to Brendan Barber that on the current level of the NMW and the pay rise workers could not afford to travel far to spend it. The closest Brendan Barber comes to criticising what amounts to a drop in the living standards for those on the NMW, given price rises, is when he called the proposed rises "modest".
Barber of course does not criticise the current level of the NMW because it was his New Labour friends in government that maintained it at a poverty level. I don't recall generous increases when they were in power during a so-called boom.
If this so-called increase for 21 year-olds and over is not a disgrace enough, the rate for young workers, - 18 to 20 year olds and 16 to 17 year olds will only rise by 1.2% and 1.1% respectively. For many all capitalism can offer is legalised poverty, where young workers are valued less and exploited more than older workers.
If Barber and most of the other trade union leaders won't lead the fightback against the Con-Dems or any other government that seeks to place the burden of the crisis of capitalism on our shoulders, then they should stand aside for those who will.
Mark Evans
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In The Socialist 11 May 2011:
Socialist Party NHS campaign
Socialist Party workplace news and analysis
PCS conference: prepare for united action on 30 June
Crucial time for Saltend dispute
Defending trade unionism on London Underground
Library cuts hit staff and users: time for action against the cuts
Socialist Students
Students occupy against cuts at London Met
Socialist Party election analysis
Government Con-Demned at ballot box
TUSC shows alternative to Con-Dem and Labour cuts
Labour wins Welsh Assembly election -
SNP landslide – but it will be a government of savage cuts
Socialist Party news and analysis
Defend independent living rights
Con-Dems put squeeze on democratic rights
Bahrain repression: Muted criticism of West's ally
International socialist news and analysis
UN report on Sri Lanka war crimes
Socialist Party reviews
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Review: Panorama on housing: The human impact of the crisis
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