Reported by The Guardian
Chancellor John Healey fails to guarantee equalisation with adult wage will happen in timeframe set out in manifesto
Labour looks less likely to meet its manifesto pledge to equalise the minimum wage for younger workers before the next election, after the chancellor failed to guarantee the rise would happen within that timeframe.
John Healey said on Sunday the government was still committed to the increase but failed to spell out when it would be achieved. In the budget, a rise in the minimum wage was handed to adults – to £13.21– and under-20s – to £11.27 – but a larger rise for younger workers would have been needed to move towards equalisation.
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Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Healey said he would “take it one step at a time” amid fears a rise could exacerbate youth unemployment .
Labour’s 2024 manifesto committed to closing the gap on pay for 18- to 20-year-olds, but last week’s budget brought in a blanket increase of 3.9%.
Some senior MPs – including the housing secretary, Angela Rayner, while she was out of government – have previously expressed concern at the slow pace of the equalisation. In June, Rayner warned the government it must deliver on the promise.
Healey said on Sunday the government was still committed to the eventual equalisation. “I legislated as a new MP for the national minimum wage when we first brought it in [in 1998], and so we’re going to have to continue to make those trade-offs between jobs and wages,” Healey said. But he denied Labour would break its manifesto commitment.
“There’s no question about whether or if. It’s a question of when. It’s a question of how fast. And I want to make sure that we can look hard at those trade-offs that inevitably are there between jobs and wages.
“I want to take business, I want to take trade unions with me, and with the government, because together we have to get into what at the moment is a moral shame on this nation, a million youngsters written off, without any prospect of being…