National Minimum Wage

Chapter 2: The Impact of the National Minimum Wage
increased by 2.15 million. Ignoring the self-employed and those on training schemes, who are
not covered by the minimum wage, we can see that the number of employees has increased
by 1.32 million and the number of employee jobs by 1.43 million between March 1999 and
September 2011. The number of hours worked in the economy as a whole increased by
2.9 per cent.
Table 2.7: Change in Employment, Jobs and Hours, UK, 1999-2011
September 2010- September 2009- September 2008- March 1999-
September 2011 September 2010 September 2009 September 2011
000s % 000s % 000s % 000s %
Workforce jobs 89 0.3 -159 -0.5 -674 -2.1 2,145 7.4
Employee jobs -69 -0.3 -271 -1.0 -780 -2.8 1,428 5.7
Employment -109 -0.4 311 1.1 -519 -1.8 2,033 7.5
Employees -130 -0.5 95 0.4 -568 -2.2 1,315 5.6
Hours worked -7,400 -0.8 12,000 1.3 -29,700 -3.2 25,400 2.9
Source: ONS, workforce jobs (DYDC) and employee jobs (BCAJ), quarterly; total employment (MGRZ), employees (MGRN) and total
weekly hours (YBUS), monthly, seasonally adjusted, UK, 1999-2011.
2.74 The recession appears to have had a different effect on employment in the low-paying
sectors compared with the whole economy. Figure 2.16 shows that jobs growth between
September 2007 and September 2008, going into the recession, was stronger in the lowpaying
sectors (0.9 per cent) than in the whole economy (0.5 per cent). However, between
September 2008 and September 2009, employment in the low-paying sectors fell by 3.9 per
cent, a much greater fall than the 2.8 per cent reduction seen across the whole economy.
But jobs in the low-paying sectors recovered more quickly. From September 2009 to
September 2011 the number of employee jobs in the low-paying sectors rose by 0.9 per
cent, against a further reduction in the rest of the economy of 1.2 per cent. This suggests
that employment in the low-paying sectors has fared better than the rest of the economy
since the end of the recession.
2.75 In September 1998, before the introduction of the minimum wage, the low-paying sectors as
a whole accounted for 32.0 per cent of all employee jobs. Between September 1998 and
September 2011, Table 2.8 shows that the number of employee jobs in the low-paying
sectors increased by 5.2 per cent which was lower than the increase in the number of
employee jobs in the economy as a whole (6.4 per cent). As a result the employment share
of the low-paying sectors had fallen to 31.6 per cent. However, since September 2001,
employment in the low-paying sectors has grown faster (2.3 per cent) than in the economy
as a whole (1.2 per cent). That is despite covering the period of larger upratings of the
minimum wage (October 2001-October 2007). Indeed, the employment share of the
low-paying sectors in September 2011 was the same as in September 1999.
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