Chancellor John Healey has declined to confirm whether Labour will deliver its manifesto pledge to ensure younger workers receive the same minimum wage as older employees by the time of the next election.
In an interview with the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show, Mr Healey said the Government would “take it one step at a time” and suggested the promise to end “discriminatory age bands” could be delayed.
Commitment to close the pay gap
In 2024, Labour committed to closing the gap between the adult minimum wage and pay for 18 to 20-year-olds. Asked whether younger workers on the minimum wage would be paid the same as their older counterparts by the next election, the Chancellor said he had accepted the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission and raised both the national minimum wage and national living wage, each increased by 3.9% across the board at the Budget.
“We’ll take one step at a time,” he said. “I legislated as a new MP for the national minimum wage when we first brought it in, and so we’re going to have to continue to make those trade-offs between jobs and wages.”
No question of whether, only when
Asked whether it may be the case that Labour breaks its manifesto commitment to remove discriminatory age bands, he replied: “There’s no question about whether or if. It’s a question of when.”
“It’s a question of how fast. And I want to make sure that we can look hard at those trade-offs that inevitably are there between jobs and wages.”
“I want to take business, I want to take trade unions with me, and with the Government, because together we have to get into what at the moment is a moral shame on this nation, a million youngsters written off, without any prospect of being helped into work and making a contribution to this country for the future.”
Budget increase and spending cuts
The blanket 3.9% increase at the Budget had prompted questions about Labour’s promise to equalise minimum wage pay for younger workers, over which unions have previously expressed concerns of a potential delay.
Mr Healey also suggested he was prepared to make big cuts to ease national debt after the Institute for Fiscal Studies questioned the likelihood of the Government following through on its plans for departmental reductions in the years to come. Asked whether he would make cuts of more than 2% a year to some government departments, he added: “We will carry that through to the 10-year plan and the spending review next year.”
“But in the Budget I also set out the ways that we’re preparing and the work we’ve got under way to prepare for those spending review decisions.”
