A minimum wage to end exploitation of young workers should be set at around £3.80 an hour, Basildon MP Angela Smith said today.
Mrs Smith was a key player in developing details of the first ever national minimum wage in 1998 and is delighted with the Government's move to extend it to 16 and 17-year-olds.
She said: "I have long believed this was one of the Labour Government's most important achievements.
"However, it left a loophole for 16 and 17-year-olds to be exploited by exempting them from the minimum wage.
"Whereas employers in a high proportion of high street retail stores pay those over-16 adult minimum rates and more, rates of pay for 16 and 17-year-olds have been recorded of as low as £1 an hour.
"We must close a loophole that allows employers to take on younger workers at the expense of the over-18s."
No figure has yet been set for 16-year-old minimum wage but Mrs Smith said she would expect it to be around - or just a little less - than the £3.80 currently being paid to 18 to 21-year-olds.
Published Friday January 9, 2004
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