the minimum wage was introduced in uk in 1998.
when was the minimum wage introduced in uk?
1998
municipal regulation of wage levels began in some towns in the united kingdom in 1524. national minimum wage law began with the trade boards act 1909, and the wages councils act 1945 set minimum wage standards in many sectors of the economy. wages councils were abolished in 1993 and subsequently replaced with a single statutory national minimum wage by the national minimum wage act 1998, which is still in force. the rates are reviewed each year by the country's low pay commission. from 1 april 2016 the minimum wage has been paid as a mandatory national living wage for workers over 25. it is being phased in between 2016 and 2020 and is set at a significantly higher level than previous minimum wage rates. by 2020 it is expected to have risen to at least £9 per hour and represent a full-time annual pay equivalent to 60% of the median uk earnings. the national living wage is nevertheless lower than the value of the living wage calculated by the living wage foundation. some organisations voluntarily pay a living wage to their staff, at a level somewhat higher than the statutory level. from september 2014 all nhs wales staff have been paid a minimum of the "living wage" recommended by the living wage commission. about 2,400 employees received an initial salary increase of up to £470 above the uk-wide agenda for change rates.
living wage
kim chang-hwan, a professor of sociology at the university of kansas, usa, also objected to ju jin-hyung's argument. in his blog he wrote, "the effect of the minimum hourly rate on the labor market is not established academically. the theory of economics suggests that if the minimum hourly rate is increased, the employment rate decreases. but the reality is that the minimum rate is cleaner than the theory." he also pointed out that there is a disagreement about whether it is bad for employment to decline by raising the minimum wage, and that high wages have the effect of promoting structural reforms and forcing productivity improvements. he said, "if businesses and self-employed people who can not afford the minimum wage are closed, the capital is absorbed into capital that can give more than the minimum wage, rather than being publicly decomposed. in this case, the productivity of the economy as a whole is improved and structural upgrading is forced." professor kim also pointed out that the conservative press, which is promoting the 'minimization of employment by the minimum wage', is using the 'minimum wage increase' as a means of ideological struggle even though the new minimum wage is not applied yet. and he criticized ju jin-hyung, "if the minimum wage increase was a big problem, you should criticize the increase by 9% over 1989 and 12 times over 30 years. until now, you have been quiet, but once the minimum wage raised the 16%, you can not criticize the minimum wage increase policy. if the korean economy was ruined because the minimum wage was high, it would have been ruined."
minimum wage in south korea