This week, the Guardian reported that Labour’s 2010 election manifesto is likely to contain a proposal for a “radical increase” to the national minimum wage (NMW) should they remain in power.

No timescale for the change is mentioned, but it seems likely that, if it does occur, it will probably be in the 2011/2012 national minimum wage uprating on 1 October 2011.

According to the article, energy minister Ed Milliband indicated that the current minimum wage would be raised considerably from its current level of £5.93 per hour, and that the new measures would go beyond simply tightening up enforcement and would consider a radical increase in the value.

Earlier this week it was announced in the budget by Alastair Darling that the NMW rate for 2010/2011 will rise from £5.80 to its new level of £5.90. The change will come into force on 1st October 2010.

The new changes may well have arisen in the light of the 2010 report by the Low Pay Commission (LPC), which sets out recommendation as to what it believes the NMW rate should be. The report was released at the end of February.

In that same month, the Independent ran a story suggesting that the Government could make the NMW uprating a key election campaign issue, writing that: “A pledge to raise the minimum wage sharply may be included in Labour’s general election manifesto as part of a drive to tackle inequality [...] Such a pledge could help to enhance Labour’s appeal among its traditional supporters and improve the prospects of the bottom DE social group voting in the expected May election.”

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