Commenting on the announcement today (Tuesday) that the minimum wage is to rise to £6.70 this October, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said:
“More than a million low-paid workers who are still finding life particularly tough will welcome the extra cash they’ll be getting in their autumn pay packets. But with many families feeling like the economic recovery is passing them by, the government should have gone for a bigger increase.
“But any rise in the minimum wage won’t help the workers whose mean bosses still insist on paying them illegal poverty wages. The government must get tougher still with those employers – especially those in the social care sector – who seem to think they are above the law.
“Ministers should be setting out a plan now to move the national minimum wage to a living wage, so that five million low-paid workers benefit. That would be best way to show we are all in this together.”