Deputies vote to increase minimum wage

Deputies have voted to increase Guernsey's minimum wage for adults and young people, with 33 States members supporting the proposal.

The decision means adult wages will increase from a minimum of £12.60 to £13.10 per hour and wages for workers aged 16 or 17 years old will go from £11.35 to £11.80, from October.

Those who opposed the plans argued there was not enough data on the amount of people on minimum wage and the increase would put further pressure on businesses.

Deputies voted in favour of the Committee for Employment & Social Security proposal after the committee changed its plans to match the youth and adult wage, increasing both to £13.10.

Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, president of the Committee for Economic Development, said there was a complete data vacuum" on minimum wage.

"We still continue to make decision on the minimum wage in a complete data vacuum," she said.

"We don't know how many people are on the minimum wage, we don't know what sectors this affects.

"So we are largely making our policy decision largely based on RPI figures and comparisons to other countries."

President of the Committee for Employment & Social Security Deputy Tina Bury said her committee was "operating in the same data vacuum that many other people are experiencing due to the IT issues at Revenue Services".

"This data is not within our committees gift to extract, we are awaiting it, we've been awaiting it for quite some time," she said.

"People can continue to urge us and we will continue to ask and we wish, in the same way that everyone else does, that we were able to make these decisions on that basis.

"Which is why we have has to go with inflation, to make sure the minimum wage at least keeps pace."

Deputy Jayne Ozanne called for Guernsey to introduce a living wage similar to that used in the UK.

"If a young person is doing the same work per day as an adult, with no supervision, I believe they should be paid exactly the same," she said.

"They too are facing the cost of living crisis, many are not living with their parents as we used to traditionally think, many are trying to support households themselves.

"Going forward we need to look at a living wage, something people can actually afford to live on, rather than minimum wage."

Deputy Simon Vermulan said he would not support the policy and urged caution that Guernsey does not find itself in the "same mess as the UK with rising youth unemployment".

"It's a terrible thing when people are priced out of being employed, youngsters can't get jobs and are discriminated against for employing slightly older people," he said.

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