JERSEY’S minimum wage will rise to £10 an hour at the start of next month.
Social Security Minister Elaine Millar has set the rise through a ministerial order, which will come into force on 1 October.
The move comes in the wake of a report by the Employment Forum, which recommended that the main minimum wage rate – currently £9.22 – should rise to £10.10 an hour from 1 January.
However, the forum said there should be no interim increase to £10 an hour next month.
A proposition lodged by Reform Jersey leader Deputy Sam Mézec in June – which is due to be debated by the States next week – also called for the minimum wage to be increased to £10 per hour by this autumn, with an additional rise to ensure it is eventually brought into line with the living wage, which currently stands at £11.27 per hour.
Deputy Millar has written to Deputy Mézec informing him of the ministerial order.
She said the government was not issuing ‘proactive announcements’ during the period of mourning for the Queen, but added it was taking steps to ‘ensure that employers are notified as soon as possible’.
Deputy Mézec said he was pleased the change was being made, but added that the latter half of his proposition – regarding plans to convert the minimum wage to a living wage over time – was ‘still very much relevant’.
‘If the cost of living is going up and wages aren’t, then it either means more poverty or benefits going up.
‘The better paid people are in work, then the less demand there will be on the social safety net,’ he said.
‘We do need that wider commitment from the States Assembly to align the minimum wage with the living wage.’
Assistant Chief Minister Lucy Stephenson, who has responsibility for communications, said: ‘Out of respect for the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the government has made some temporary adjustments to its communications policy.
‘This reflects the fact that Jersey, as a Crown Dependency, is considered to be in a period of national mourning.
‘Announcements will continue to be issued that relate to public health, health, infrastructure, matters of public interest and safety, and on arrangements for the national period of mourning and the accession of His Majesty King Charles III.
‘All other news releases will be paused until the end of the national period of mourning on Tuesday 20 September.
‘Requests for government comment will be responded to on a case-by-case basis, and where urgent comment is appropriate during the period of mourning it will be provided.’
