Oral Answers to Questions

Rachel Maclean Excerpts
Tuesday 12th September 2017

(6 years, 6 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Margot James Portrait Margot James
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That is one of the reasons why the Government have introduced the national living wage, as a means of boosting the earning power of people at the lower end of the pay scale. I acknowledge that average earnings have been static over the past year, but it is important to recognise that people on the national minimum wage were given a 4% pay rise in April this year, and 1.3 million of those people have been taken out of paying income tax altogether.

Rachel Maclean Portrait Rachel Maclean (Redditch) (Con)
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Does the Minister agree that this Government have done more than any other to raise the wages of the lower paid in our society, including an average £1,000 pay rise per worker?

Margot James Portrait Margot James
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I have to agree with my hon. Friend, who makes a very good point. Indeed, the rise in national minimum wage to which I referred in my earlier answer is the best pay rise for low-paid people in this country for 20 years.