Make Living Wage the Minimum Wage

The Lib Vannin Party has called for the island’s minimum wage aligned with the Manx Living Wage from April.

Tynwald has previously committed the gov to aligning the two by April 2025.

Currently the minimum wage is set at £9.50 for over 18s, with the gov recently asking islanders and businesses to submit their opinions on next year’s increase. Although, because we aren’t a modern country in the 21st century, you have to email them or send a letter because for whatever reason the gov chose not to let the Minimum Wage Committee use consult.gov.im.

While the minimum wage is £9.50 (for over 18s, don’t @ me), the living wage is currently set at £11.05 and the Minimum Wage Committee has already said the minimum wage would ‘need to increase to approximately £11 per hour from April 2023 to remain on course for a steady transition to Living Wage levels’.

However, this won’t take into account how much the living wage will also rise by thanks to inflation.

Lib Vannin chairman Paul Weatherall said: ‘At our recent public meeting on the cost-of-living crisis, Treasury Minister, Dr Allinson stated that what had been announced to date by government was not enough to help people through the inflationary pressures we expect to see over the coming months and years.

‘Accelerating the government’s existing commitment to set the Manx Living Wage as the island’s Legal Minimum Wage, to take effect next April, instead of April 2026, will significantly help those on low incomes struggling to make ends meet, targeting help to those who need it most.

‘The island’s employers should already be factoring in this change in their business planning and many already accept the Manx Living Wage as the minimum that they should be paying their employees.’

Lib Vannin also calls for the ‘Development Worker’ category to be reviewed, with the party saying ‘we understand that it is not being applied fairly or in keeping with the original aims of the Minimum Wage Review Committee’.

You can message the Minimum Wage Committee by email at employment.dfe@gov.im or post them to The Secretary to the Minimum Wage Committee, Department for Enterprise, Nivison House, Prospect Hill, Douglas, IM1 5ET by end of play on November 28.