JERSEY’S minimum wage should be increased to £10.10 an hour from January, according to the Employment Forum.
However, the forum – which was tasked with considering an increase in the minimum wage from the current £9.22 to £10 per hour from October 2022 – said it was unable to recommend an ‘interim increase’ this year.
In a report published today, the non-political consultative body also recommended that the Social Security Minister increased weekly offsets for accommodation and food by 20%, which would rise to just under £146.
Following a consultation, the forum has also recommended abolishing separate minimum wage rates for first- and second-year trainees, which would mean from January 2024 the Island would have a single minimum wage, as well as a 9.5% increase in January – which is the same rate as the rise to the main minimum wage.
The forum considered the ‘mixed picture of the economic outlook for Jersey’ suggested by recent Fiscal Policy Panel predictions in its recommendations. It said the benefit of an increase in October was ‘at best, marginal’, while evidence it received during a consultation ‘reveals little support for an interim increase’. Its report stated that it was ‘concerned that businesses should have time to assimilate any increase and take the necessary administrative steps’, due to lasting business concerns following the pandemic.
A proposition lodged by Deputy Sam Mézec – which is due to be debated by the States Assembly next week – has called for the minimum wage to be increased to £10 per hour by this autumn and eventually brought into line with the living wage, which currently stands at £11.27 per hour. Caritas Jersey – which promotes the adoption of the ‘living wage’ – recently renewed its calls for the government to follow through on proposals to raise the minimum wage after the Jersey Household Income Distribution report highlighted that income inequality had increased over the past decade.
In its report, the forum said consideration of an appropriate level of living wage in Jersey was ‘outside’ its current remit. But the forum noted that the new government had ‘agreed to pursue the objective set out by the previous States Assembly for the minimum wage to be set at two-thirds (66%) of the median wage by the end of 2024’.
Forum chair Carla Benest said they were grateful for the engagement with employees, employers, and business and trade union organisations, ‘in all sectors of the economy’.
‘We recognise that these are still challenging times for businesses and employees, and the forum has endeavoured to reflect that in our recommendations,’ she added.
