What is the current minimum wage?

This article explores The National Minimum Wage, its current levels and its historical background. Read on to find out more about the current minimum wage.

What is it?

The National Minimum Wage is a minimum pay per hour that workers in the UK are entitled to be paid.
There are some small restrictions to entitlement, such as age (with school-leavers and young adults being entitled to less, and persons of compulsory school age not entitled at all) but the vast majority of the working population have their income protected by the National Minimum Wages Act 1998, whereby employers cannot by law provide pay rates less than the minimum wage rates stipulated in the Wages Act.

How much is it?

What is the minimum wage in the UK? Currently (at the time of writing this) the minimum wage rates are as follows (source: Direct.gov.uk): £5.93 - Main rate for workers aged 21 and over
£4.92 - 18-20 rate
£3.64 - 16-17 rate for workers above school-leaving age but under 18
£2.50 - Apprentice rate, for apprentices under 19 or 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship. Incidentally, these levels are reviewed each year and the employment rates are set to increase in October 2011 (to £6.08, £4.98, £3.68, £2.60, maintaining the order of above).

Historical background

The National Minimum Wage first took effect on 1st April 1999 (at £3.60 per hour for adults). It was, in fact, one of the primary Labour policies in the 1997 election. Comparison As noted above, the rate is reviewed each year and, looking at recent years, the adult minimum wage 2008 was £5.73 and the equivalent minimum wage 2009 was £5.80 (an increase of 1.2%; compares this to the planned increase of 2.5% later this year). No national minimum wage existed prior to 1998, although under a piece of legislation entitled "The Trade Boards Act 1909", the creation of boards that had the power to set minimum wage criteria (that were legally enforceable) were allowed.
Formed but not established until later Four of these boards were formed, but it was not until Labour in 1999 that a National Minimum Wage was established in the UK. Country-wise In international terms, the first country in the world to create such boards was in fact New Zealand (in 1896), while the USA introduced statutory minimum wages in 1938.