Labour’s pledge to hike minimal wage for younger folks faces delay
Ministers are understood to be considering putting the brakes on implementing a Labour manifesto vow to ensure adults of all ages get the same minimum wage rate
Youth unemployment has hit a five year high(Image: Getty Images)
Plans to pay young people the same minimum wage as older workers could be delayed.
Ministers are understood to be considering putting the brakes on the manifesto vow to ensure adults of all ages get the same rate. Labour committed to scrap “discretionary age bands” in its manifesto and to increase the wages of 18 to 20-year-olds so they are paid the same as those over 21.
But the Government is considering bringing in the rise more slowly, according to sources. It comes amid concerns about unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds, which hit a five-year high in the final three months of 2025.
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves did not rule out a delay when grilled on reports on a visit to a supermarket in south London. She said: “We already have incentives to hire young people with the apprenticeship rate of the minimum wage, but also for no national insurance contributions for the youngest workers.”
She added: “There are more people in work than there were this time a year ago.
“But I do recognise that there are challenges, particularly around young people leaving school, college and university, the Covid generation of young people who did miss out on so much during those years. And as a Government, we are determined to do everything we can to support them.”
Andy Prendergast, the GMB’s national officer, said a delay or dropping the promise would be unacceptable. He said: “We’d be extremely unhappy about that. This is a manifesto promise. This has been our union’s policy for a long period of time.”
Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said she did “not accept” that the minimum wage causes problems for employers.
She said: “The Low Pay Commission says that the evidence does not show that there is a direct correlation between problems and the raising of the national minimum wage.
“We came into work on a manifesto to make work pay, and that’s exactly we’re doing.”
Bosses must pay workers aged between 18 and 20 at least £10 an hour – a figure which will rise to £10.85 in April. Older workers aged 21 and over must receive at least £12.21 – rising to £12.71.
A Government spokesperson said: “We are raising the National Living and Minimum Wage so that low-paid workers are properly rewarded.”
