National Minimum Wage

Grahame Morris Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, which reminds me of a story that my predecessor as MP for Leeds West told me. He saw a job advert in our constituency for a security guard back in the mid-1990s that said, “Pay, 90p an hour. Uniform provided. Bring your own dog.” Those were the sort of jobs that existed back then, but members of this Government opposed the national minimum wage legislation. I look forward to hearing what the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has to say later, but people will be entitled to ask him where he was when we abolished the scandal of jobs paying less than £1 an hour and when British workers won the right to be paid a decent minimum wage.

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

Notwithstanding the Secretary of State’s reservations about the minimum wage, what does my hon. Friend think about the reservations of ordinary working people about the Government’s plan to give 100% bonuses to bankers at the Royal Bank of Scotland? Will that be well received?

[Rachel Reeves]

Many people earning £6.31 an hour will be shocked and outraged to find out that bankers this year will get bonuses worth more than they earn, but they will be even more shocked to find out that they are the ones who are paying for those bonuses.

--- Later in debate ---

[Vince Cable]

It did fall slightly last year—just slightly. However, the minimum wage is now significantly above that level.

That is a major issue for young workers and for apprenticeships. For young workers, particularly those aged 16 and 17, the so-called bite is close to 80%, which means that any significant increase in the minimum wage would have the unfortunate effect of displacing most of them from the labour force. That is a factor that has weighed very heavily with the Low Pay Commission when it has made its recommendations.

[Grahame M. Morris]

Will the Secretary of State give way? I will be very brief.

[Vince Cable]

I will be indulgent.

[Grahame M. Morris]

I am grateful to the Secretary of State. He is being very generous, and I appreciate the way in which he has engaged with interventions. May I just put one thought in his mind? A number of very profitable companies are offering their workers—many of them young workers—zero-hours or four-hours contracts, which have a terrible effect on a person’s ability not just to live but to exist.

[Vince Cable]

I have already said in the House on several occasions that the Government are now engaged in a public conversation about how we deal with zero-hours contract abuses. I think the hon. Gentleman has to be careful as the research that has been carried out suggests that very large numbers of people on zero-hours contracts like that model, but we must deal with the abuses, of course.