Rise needed in National Minimum Wage

Reports that the Prime Minister is considering cutting the National Minimum Wage in Northern Ireland are deeply alarming.

"In fact, we need a big increase to end poverty wages and tackle the hugh growth in inequality," said Paul McGill, editor of the social policy magazine SCOPE.

What Mr Brown may not know is that the weekly wages of the lowest paid workers here actually fell last year. Their only protection against starvation pay is the National Minimum Wage.

Official figures show that the wage gap between high and low earners has grown enormously in recent years. In the latest six years, top earners have enjoyed a weekly pay rise of £143 but bottom earners have merely crept up £3.20 per week.

As a result, in 2006, the pay gap between the highest and lowest paid employees in Northern Ireland was £600 every week - double what it was in 1990.

"This huge inequality has long been a disgrace but is now becoming a scandal. The idea that we should cut pay at the bottom even more is outrageous. The anti-poverty strategy demands that we should substantially raise the minimum wage, not reduce it.

"Mr Brown is committed to ending child poverty. I'm confident he will recognise that he cannot do this by cutting the pay of their parents," Mr McGill added.

For more information, contact Paul McGill at NICVA, tel: 028 9087 7777; mobile: 0772 1746 805.