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Apprentice pay might not be top of everyone’s agenda as we head towards a general election, but making sure apprentices get a decent wage is an important way of guaranteeing a bit more fairness for young people. So it’s great that government has agreed that all employed apprentices will be entitled to a minimum wage of £2.50 an hour from October. This single rate will replace a series of complex arrangements where some apprentices in England were paid a minimum £95 a week, but there was no minimum pay level for apprentices in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
ippr carried out some research with apprentices last summer and we met many apprentices doing hard and menial work four or five days a week for £95 a week, or less – in Belfast, we found hairdressing apprentices earning just £60 for a five-day week. Our research found that low apprentice pay was often linked to poor quality training and was a particular problem for young women in sectors like hairdressing and social care.
The apprentices we spoke to didn’t expect to be paid the same as friends working in call centres or offices, or more experienced colleagues. But they did expect a fair deal in return for their passion, commitment and growing skills.
The rate of £2.50 an hour can be criticised as being too low – apprentices will have to work at least 38 hours a week to earn the equivalent of the £95 weekly rate currently in place in England. Given the problems with youth unemployment at the moment and the difficulty in convincing some employers to take on apprentices, the £2.50 rate was probably the most that the Commission thought it could recommend.
But the move creates a framework for apprentices of all ages to receive an hourly, legal minimum wage, which is reviewed annually by the independent Low Pay Commission - and a rate that can be built on in future.
Kayte Lawton, research fellow, ippr
There is tussle going on inside the Conservative party apparently over whether the Tories should make a manifesto commitment to pay the lowest paid government employees the ‘living wage’.
The London living wage at £7.60 is £1.80 more than the minimum wage and better reflects the real cost of living in the capital. The ‘living wage’ campaign has been led by the Citizen’s Organising Foundation and ippr is proud to have been one of the first voluntary organisations to adopt a living wage for its staff.
An impressive array of London’s biggest employers are signed up and Boris Johnson took a truly progressive step for the Conservatives when he became Mayor of London by ensuring that City Hall and all its contractors would pay the higher rate. Now it seems David Cameron’s Head of Strategy Steve Hilton has lost a battle to introduce the living wage across Whitehall as a way of showing the Conservatives care about the poorest wage earners.
But at least there are top level Tories pushing the idea. Where is Labour on this? Despite championing the minimum wage, Labour has shied away from supporting a living wage. Now, with public finances so tight, there’s concern that it would simply be too expensive to pay cleaners, catering staff and other low paid staff a decent wage.
But low wage levels in the capital are already costing the taxpayer in tax credits and other low income supplements. With more than half of children living in poverty now living in a family where at least one parent is working, the promise to “make work pay” rings well and truly hollow. Shouldn’t hard working families be guaranteed a route out of poverty? It seems extraordinary to think that there are children living in poverty whose parents are working as cleaners, caterers and other staff in Whitehall.
In a recent poll on the Labour supporting Left Foot Forward website, the living wage came out as the most popular progressive manifesto idea.
There’ll be plenty of things that the main parties will disagree on in this election, but they should be as one in pledging that any government they run will pay its own staff a London living wage and not just a minimum wage.
Lisa Harker, co-director, ippr
Apprentice pay might not be top of everyone’s agenda as we head towards a general election, but making sure apprentices get a decent wage is an important way of guaranteeing a bit more fairness for young people. So it’s great that government has agreed that all employed apprentices will be entitled to a minimum wage of £2.50 an hour from October. This single rate will replace a series of complex arrangements where some apprentices in England were paid a minimum £95 a week, but there was no minimum pay level for apprentices in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
