Xinhua, London :
The Low Pay Commission (LPC) of Britain Wednesday recommended a 3-percent increase in the minimum wage to 6.5 pounds (10.8 U.S. dollars) an hour for adults.
The minimum wage has risen faster than other wages since during the economic slowdown, and the wages of the lowest paid are now higher relative to those of other workers than they have been for decades, said LPC in its report entitled Executive Summary of the Low Pay Commission 2014 Report.
However, the real value of the minimum wage has fallen, even though the minimum wage has risen faster than other wages, because both it and average wages have been exceeded by inflation, noted LPC.
David Norgrove, Chairman of LPC, said: “We have had to balance the risk of recommending more than business and the economy can afford, bearing in mind the pressures on low-paying sectors and small firms, against the risk of doing too little to start to restore the real value of the earnings of the lowest paid.
“We do believe however that the economic recovery should this year allow an increase in the real value of the minimum wage, the first increase for at least five years. So we are recommending that the adult rate should increase by 3.0 per cent on 1 October, from 6.31 pounds to 6.50 pounds an hour. This is likely to increase the number of jobs covered by the minimum wage by over a third to around one and a quarter million,” added Norgrove.
