Reform Jersey has lodged a proposition proposing that the minimum wage should rise to £7.88 per hour from April next year.
The move comes after Social Security Minister Susie Pinel proposed that the minimum wage should be increased by 4.5 per cent to £7.50 an hour – the largest rise in a decade – next April, on the recommendation of the States Employment Forum.
If the minister’s change is agreed by States Members, it would mean that a person earning the minimum wage who works for 35 hours a week would have an annual salary of £13,650.
However, Deputy Sam Mézec, chairman of Reform Jersey, does not believe the rise goes far enough and says that the minimum wage should instead be increased by 10 per cent.
Within his proposition, Deputy Mézec also asks the States to fast-track the timetable for further increases over the next three years, calling for the minimum wage to reach 60 per cent of median [midpoint] earnings by 2020, which would match targets set in the UK.
The States is currently planning for the minimum wage to reach 45 per cent of average earnings by 2026.
Deputy Mézec said that a recent report published by economics consultancy firm Oxera states that an increased minimum wage in Jersey would have several positive effects, such as reducing the number of Islanders claiming welfare.
‘The States has shamefully allowed Jersey’s minimum wage to fall behind the rest of the British Isles in recent years, despite a decade of wage stagnation, the highest inflation for five years and growing rates of poverty,’ he says.
‘Every year we have argued for the minimum wage to be increased to try to assist those Islanders on low incomes who are struggling to get by.
‘We believe that the States no longer has any excuses to ignore these calls, given the publication of a report earlier this year from Oxera, which examined the potential impact of raising the minimum wage to £7.88 per hour, and concluded that there would be numerous benefits as a result. These include greater income tax receipts, greater consumer spending and a lower benefits bill.’
Deputy Mézec’s proposition is due to be debated on 28 November.
