Robert Hargreaves - The Development of Minimum Wage Legislation in the United Kingdom

Robert Hargreaves

Austin Macauley Publishers

2019-10-30

Robert Hargreaves is an Associate Lecturer in Law at Sheffield Hallam University. His interests are in legal history, employment and contract law, constitutional law and refugee law. He is currently researching for a PhD at Sheffield Hallam University, examining post-arrival refugee integration.

This work presents an examination of the legal developments made in wage regulations within the United Kingdom. The period that has been chosen for examination spans from the 19th to the 21st century. This period was chosen for examination due to the huge social, political, economic and legal changes that took place within the United Kingdom during these years. These changes saw major developments made within the field of employment law and workers rights in general. This period also saw the enactment of the first piece of legislation that regulated wages in the industrial world the Trade Boards Act of 1909.

This book examines the journey that the United Kingdom took since the enactment of the 1909 Act that led to the current system of wage regulation The National Minimum Wage Act 1998.
This work has also touched on various campaigns that have called for a Living Wage and has assessed what impact these have had on government policy. It looks at the National Living Wage that was introduced in 2016 and examines whether this is a living wage in the sense of the word.

To my parents, David and Sharon.

Robert Hargreaves (2019)

The right of Robert Hargreaves to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528969390 (ePub e-book)

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First Published (2019)

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I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr James Marson, for the patience, guidance, encouragement and advice he has provided throughout my time as his student. I have been extremely lucky to have a supervisor who cared so much about my work. Dr Marsons door was always open whenever I ran into trouble or had a question about my research or writing.

I must also express my profound gratitude to my parents, David and Sharon, for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and throughout the process of researching this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. I must also thank my two sisters, Megan and Elisabeth, for their constant support and encouragement.

I also need to thank the numerous friends that have read drafts of my work and for the feedback and support that each of them have provided.

This thesis presents an examination of the legal developments made in wage regulations within the United Kingdom. The period that has been chosen for examination, spans from the 18th to the 21st century. This period was chosen for examination due to the huge social, political, economic and legal changes that took place within the United Kingdom during these years. These changes saw major developments made within the field of employment law and workers rights in general.

This period also saw the enactment of the first piece of legislation that regulated wages in the industrial world the Trade Boards Act of 1909.

This thesis examines the journey that the United Kingdom took since the enactment of the 1909 Act that lead to the current system of wage regulation The National Minimum Wage Act 1998.

This thesis has also touched on various campaigns that have called for a Living Wage and has assessed what impact these have had on Government policy. It looks at the National Living Wage that was introduced in 2016, and examines whether this is a living wage in the sense of the word.

This thesis sets out to examine the legal developments that have been made in the area of wages within the United Kingdom, during the period between the 19th and 21st centuries. The principle aims to examine and discuss, what I believe, have been the significant social, economic and legal changes that have taken place between these periods that ultimately have led to the creation of a statutory NLW.

This thesis does not contain any empirical research. Instead, a considerable number of secondary sources were used when writing this thesis. These included Acts of the UK Parliament and Acts of Parliament from Australia and New Zealand. In addition to this, a number of statutory instruments were used whilst writing this thesis. Government reports were also used along with the reports from a number of select committees. I relied on a number of newspaper articles and BBC news reports along with an extensive number of academic articles that were used to compare varying opinions on the examined subject. These proved invaluable when addressing the question that was examined in this thesis. Case law has not played a significant role in the development of wages within the UK, although I was able to use an Australian case when assessing particular elements of the thesis. The majority of the data and figures came from research published by the Office of National Statistics, the Living Wage Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Low Pay Commission. I also used a number of social science textbooks, political parties election manifestos and a number of social studies that looked at poverty and its relation with wages. Finally, a number of reports from Hansard were used when assessing the mood of Government and its response to public opinion. These reports were again invaluable with helping to explain the motives behind changes in legislation and, in some cases, the reluctance to legislate.

All of these sources were analysed and discussed throughout this thesis and, where appropriate, the differing opinions were compared to help better the answer to my thesis question.

My research began with general background reading on the subject of wages and poverty. I read a number of social science and historical books to gain an initial understanding of the issue of wages in the UK. These sources directed me to a number of other sources that better highlighted the link between poverty and wages and the campaigns against sweating and ultimately the call for some form of statutory wage regulation. Other sources allowed for a comparison between various forms of wage regulation within different jurisdictions; notably the Australian and New Zealand systems. This helped when explaining early attempts in the UK at wage regulation the TBA 1909.

I did encounter some difficulties whilst undertaking this research. This was predominantly whilst researching early legislation and finding government reports from the 19th century. I had to contact the National Archives for some of these sources. Similarly, articles and legislation from other jurisdictions was not easy to access and I feel that I could have elaborated further on the early Australian and New Zealand systems had more sources been readily available. I also found that the majority of academic articles that have been written on wages, mainly seem to revolve around economic and social science fields. It was quite difficult to find specific articles that were purely based on the legal developments that have been made. As such, I had to read much more broadly around the subject in order to be able to answer the question set by this thesis. Not all of the information that I researched had a direct bearing on the question asked and was not included in this thesis.