ORGANISATIONS representing convenience store operators across the UK have slammed the Labour Party’s intention to increase the rate of the national minimum wage, in stages, to £8 an hour if it forms the government after next year’s UK general election.
Party leader Ed Miliband announced last month that if his is elected prime minister in next year’s election, he will increase the minimum wage to £8 an hour by 2020.
But the Scottish Grocers’ Federation said such a move would “lead to fewer jobs and reduced investment”.
Mr Miliband told the Labour conference in Manchester: “One in five workers find themselves on low pay. That should shame us all.
“The Tories are the party of wealth and privilege. Labour is the party of hard work, fairly paid.”
He said all workers should share in the country’s wealth and that wages should grow at the same rate as the economy, adding: “It is amazing that that statement is even controversial. That is what the cost of living crisis is all about.”
The proposed increase would affect around 1.4 million jobs and would be introduced in annual stages by the Low Pay Commission before October 2019.
Mr Miliband’s proposed rate – which he claimed would give low paid workers a rise of £3,000 a year – is said to be similar to that in force in EU countries such as Belgium and Germany, but lower than in France and New Zealand.
The minimum wage has climbed from £5.93 an hour to £6.50 an hour since 2010, outstripping the growth in average earnings.
But according to the SGF, recent rises above the rate of inflation have added to business costs and reduced already tight margins.
“Miliband is committing the Labour Party to the Conservative’s programme of spending cuts while expecting employers to deal with low pay and poverty,” said SGF chief executive John Drummond.
“Convenience store retailers simply cannot afford these constant increases in their salary bill. This will lead to fewer jobs and reduced investment.”
South of the border, the Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman said: “Minimum wage rates should be delivered through an objective assessment of the facts by the Low Pay Commission. The commission already has a clear remit to increase the National Minimum Wage as high as possible without negatively impacting on employment, and we do not believe that it is responsible for politicians to use the minimum wage as a bargaining tool for the election.”
