skip to main content
Language:
Search Limited to: Search Limited to: Resource type Show Results with: Show Results with: Search type Index

Low Pay, Wage Relativities, and Labour’s First Attempt to Introduce a Statutory National Minimum Wage in the United Kingdom

Journal of policy history, 2016-01, Vol.28 (1), p.81-104 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2015 ;Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press ;Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2015 ;ISSN: 0898-0306 ;EISSN: 1528-4190 ;DOI: 10.1017/S089803061500038X

Full text available

Citations Cited by
  • Title:
    Low Pay, Wage Relativities, and Labour’s First Attempt to Introduce a Statutory National Minimum Wage in the United Kingdom
  • Author: Oude Nijhuis, Dennie
  • Subjects: Economic policy ; Great Britain ; History ; Labor law ; Labor unions ; Labour Party (Great Britain) ; Law and legislation ; Legislation ; Minimum wage ; Political parties ; Trades Union Congress ; Wages & salaries
  • Is Part Of: Journal of policy history, 2016-01, Vol.28 (1), p.81-104
  • Description: During the mid-1960s, the British Labour Party undertook its first attempt to introduce a statutory national minimum wage as a solution for the problem of low pay in the United Kingdom. In doing so, it set the stage for a long period of debate with Britain's largest labor union confederation, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), over the merits of statutory intervention in the wage bargaining process. For over two decades, and against the intention of two consecutive Labour governments, the TUC voiced its strong opposition to the introduction of a national minimum wage through legislative means. In doing so, it helped ensure that the statutory national minimum wage only came into effect in April 1999--over three decades after a Labour government had first proposed its introduction. Until then, the United Kingdom was in the unique position of not having a common floor for wage levels, as it neither had a statutory national minimum wage nor a functional equivalent in the form of minimum pay rates made possible by an extensive spread of collective bargaining. In some industries, it did have Wages Councils that were charged with setting up minimum pay rates for workers. Yet, and as acknowledged by both the Labour Government and the TUC by the mid-1960s, these were wholly inadequate in solving the problem of low pay in the United Kingdom. By resisting the introduction of a statutory national minimum wage for two more decades, the TUC thus hardly acted in the interests of Britain's lowest-paid workers.
  • Publisher: New York, USA: Cambridge University Press
  • Language: English
  • Identifier: ISSN: 0898-0306
    EISSN: 1528-4190
    DOI: 10.1017/S089803061500038X
  • Source: ProQuest Central
Back to results list
INSPIRE LIBRARY - TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY (84-028) 37 755 057 Feedback
19 Nguyen Huu Tho St. Dist.7, HCM thuvien@tdtu.edu.vn

Copyright © 2017 INSPIRE LIBRARY - TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY

Searching Remote Databases, Please Wait