Deputy Judy Martin was responding to criticism of a suggested rise in the minimum hourly rate from £8.32 to £9.22, after Reform Jersey member Deputy Geoff Southern lodged a proposition calling for it to increase to £9.45 per hour – 60% of median earnings.
On Wednesday, the UK increased its national minimum wage to £9.50 and Deputy Southern pointed out that this was a typical level for other developed countries.
But Deputy Martin countered: ‘If you look at other island jurisdictions we compare very well. In Guernsey the minimum wage is going up to £9.05 per hour and in the Isle of Man it is £8.70.
‘So we are not lagging behind. We are out in front.’
Deputy Martin said an increase to £9.22 represented an hourly wage that was equivalent to 45% of average earnings and that the figure had been arrived at after consultation with employers, employees, trade unions and the Chamber of Commerce.
She also warned that an increase in the minimum wage that was too sudden could create difficulties for some employers, especially those who had been struggling.
She said: ‘Industry has been supported by millions of pounds in the past 18 months.
‘Now we are coming out of that, but we don’t know how many would suffer if we put up the minimum wage too fast. We don’t want people to lose their jobs.’
Every year Catholic anti-poverty charity Caritas proposes a figure for a ‘living wage’ – the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their needs – and the minister said she would be meeting representatives from the group in the next few weeks. She said the long-term hope was that Jersey’s minimum wage would match the charity’s living-wage estimate.
States Members are due to debate Deputy Southern’s proposed minimum-wage increase on 23 November.
