to remind people that the minimum wage was introduced by the Labour Government - and all the Tories have done is rebrand it as the Living Wage

[cakeorwine]

National Minimum Wage Act 1998 - Wikipedia

The Living Wage - which is the minimum pay someone who is 23 or above can get is going up to £11 an hour.

Jeremy Hunt to confirm national living wage to rise to £11 an hour - BBC News[

""Since we introduced [the national living wage], nearly two million people have been lifted from absolute poverty," Mr Hunt is expected to say.
"That's the Conservative way of improving the lives of working people. Boosting pay, cutting tax."
"

Excuse me - you rebranded the minimum wage, so don't take any credit for introducing it.

I do wish someone would pull the Conservatives up on this when they try to take credit for it.

Moot point. They’ve raised it, and that’s good.

I was on NMW 12 years ago earning £12500 a year full time. Now full time is £20,000+ that’s a decent increase, and one of the few things the Tories have done right.

(not that £20k today really goes much further as £12k then…)

They raised it and are taking credit for "introducing it".

But Tories got to Tory.

They aren’t the same thing.

Minimum wage and living wage are two different things. Maybe not how they are doing it but they are. Minimum wage is just as it sounds, a legal minimum. A living wage is supposed to be a wage someone can support themselves on. They vary by place.

The National Living Wage is the minimum wage if you are 23 or over

National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The National Living wage is the minimum wage you get if you are 23 or over.

Why does it matter when the basic lowest income has nearly doubled in less than 12 years? Credit where credits due, they’ve done right in this one. Who cares what it’s called or who first started it.

At one point there was the NMW and a living wage, it used to give companies kudos points if they paid staff the slightly higher wage.

It was made official by the Tories, so now they get the kudos points.

It matters when politicians take credit for introducing something that they didn't introduce.

They initially opposed the NMW. Now they support it

National minimum wage 2010; £5.95 p/h
37 per week = £11,447 per annum

effective national min wage now: £10.42 p/h
37 hour week = £20,048

https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/national-minimum-wage-previous-rates

Parties can change their minds on things.

Real time basic wages have nearly doubled in just over a decade.

Have you ever tried working full time on £11k? I have and it was grim. I couldn’t even afford a bus to work.

I think the NMW is a good thing.

Which is why the Labour Government introduced it.

And?

And???

Yeah i agree it's disingenuous of them to take credit for something but it's not like they've got anything to brag about lately

We literally have people putting their adult children in pot holes to show how deep they are under labour they used to plant flowers on them 😂

They're such Billy Bullshitters aren't they. Shameless. I wonder if their campaign will mention the billions we are losing each year as a result of the tories bumbling out of the single market like idiots. I think not.
www.itv.com/news/2022-12-20/brexit-costs-government-40-billion-a-year-in-lost-tax-revenue

www.itv.com/news/2022-06-09/brexit-cost-the-uk-billions-in-lost-trade-and-tax-revenues-research-finds

Which "And" to reply to.

IF you take credit for something at work you didn't do but someone else and try to get kudos for it by rebranding it after it's been introduced, then it matters.

All they have done is rebrand it and apply it to people above a certain age. It's not like they are the ones who introduced the minimum wage.

But they were two separate things and the Tories DID introduce the National Living Wage

They are now the same thing as they merged because people, rightly, said it was just an excuse for companies to pay less when there was the option of a lower wage...

The Tories introduced a minimum wage for people over 25 and called it the National Living Wage. But it was a compulsory minimum wage for people over 25.

So how is that different? Just the minimum wage with age bands in.

Yes, which was introduced by the Conservatives.

Maybe they should introduce something called the living pension and then simply add an age band into the current pension and then say how good they are for introducing the living pension?

It's just the minimum wage, introduced by Labour, with an age band in so younger people can't get it.

Why can't younger people get it?

An adult is aged 18 or over, yet the highest minimum wage doesn't start until aged 23, which is ridiculous.

There should be one for under 18 and a nother higher one which everyone should get once they turn 18.

But it isn’t, they fundamentally changed it to take what was previously an “aspirational” living wage and legislate to make it mandatory.

The fact that you want to pretend that it’s not dissimilar enough for you personally to accept the claim is neither here nor there, it’s clearly not a lie that they did this.

It was to stop younger people being priced out of the job market. Most employers don’t want to pay someone straight out of school the same as someone with a proven track record, and so without the bands it’d have caused real harm to young people’s ability to get work.