Football is reaching the business end of the season. Struggling clubs are desperately hoping to avoid finishing in the relegation zone and falling into a lower league. Guernsey FC are among them. The whole island wishes the boys well tonight and on Saturday in their herculean task to avoid the drop.
Sadly, if there was a league table for minimum wage rates, Guernsey would be in the relegation zone of that one, too. The Isle of Man’s is higher and it has a policy of above-inflation increases. Jersey’s is £40 a week more. For workers over 20, even the UK has a higher minimum wage than Guernsey, despite average earnings being much lower.
At next week’s States meeting, Employment & Social Security is proposing an unambitious increase in the local rate. So unambitious that by this time next year a full-time worker in Jersey could be entitled to not far off £100 a week more than his or her counterpart in Guernsey.
Hold my beer, say Deputies Kazantseva-Miller and Murray. Surely a way can be found to delay any increase in the minimum wage and apply downward pressure on the rate in future years. And a way has been found, in the form of a harsh and unnecessary amendment, which over time risks making life that bit harder for those who don’t have much to start with.
The Assembly will kick out the amendment if it has any interest in genuine social policy and hauling Guernsey out of this relegation zone.
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