Steve sponsors new law to strengthen the National Minimum Wage

Labour MP Steve Reed has backed a Private Member’s Bill to raise the value of the National Minimum Wage.  The new law, proposed by Labour’s Dan Jarvis, aims to reduce the number of hard-working people who are forced to live in poverty because of low pay.  The number of working people claiming benefits in Croydon has soared under the Tory-led Government from 1000 four years ago to over 12,000 today because of the Government’s failure to tackle low pay and job insecurity.

The new law would require the government to introduce a target to increase the minimum wage over the course of a parliament as part of a national mission to tackle low pay. It would also give the Low Pay Commission new powers to raise productivity and tackle low pay in different sectors of the economy.  The proposal will be debated in the House of Commons in November.

If passed, the new law would ensure the minimum wage increases faster than average earnings, helping to lift the lowest paid out of poverty.  Labour believe it’s important that work always pays more than being on benefits, and that no one who works for a living should be left to live in poverty.

Locally, Croydon’s newly elected Labour council has introduced plans to make Croydon a living wage employer, meaning everyone who works for the Council and its contractors would be paid enough to maintain a decent basic standard of living.

Speaking about the proposal in Parliament, Steve Reed MP said:

“The National Minimum Wage was one of the last Labour Government’s greatest achievements and ended the scandal of people going to work for as little as £1 an hour.

But now over 5 million people are stuck in low-paid jobs and the value of the national minimum wage has been going backwards for several years.  People in Croydon are suffering from a cost-of-living crisis thanks to this Tory-led Government.   I’m determined that no one who works hard for a living should be left struggling to make ends meet.”