National Minimum Wage Rates

We recommend that the adult minimum wage rate should increase from £5.80 to £5.93 from October 2010 (paragraph 8.55).

We recommend that the Youth Development Rate should increase from £4.83 to £4.92 and that the 16–17 Year Old Rate should increase from £3.57 to £3.64 from October 2010 (paragraph 8.56).

Accommodation Offset

We recommend that the accommodation offset should increase from £4.51 to £4.61 per day from October 2010 (paragraph 8.58).

Apprentice Minimum Wage Rate

We recommend that non-employed apprentices are excluded from the apprentice minimum wage and continue to be exempt from the National Minimum Wage (paragraph 6.19).

We recommend that the apprentice minimum wage be applied as a single rate to those apprentices currently exempt from the National Minimum Wage. That is all those under the age of 19 and those aged 19 and over in the first 12 months of their apprenticeship. The wage should cover both those employed on traditional contracts of apprenticeship and employed apprentices on government-supported Level 2 and 3 schemes (paragraph 6.50).

We recommend that all hours of work and training (relating to both on-the-job and off-the-job) under an apprenticeship should be counted as hours for which the apprentice minimum wage must be paid. All hours should be paid at the same wage rate (paragraph 6.59).

We recommend that the apprentice minimum wage be set at an hourly rate (paragraph 6.65).

We recommend the apprentice minimum wage is set at a rate of £2.50 per hour and is introduced from October 2010 (paragraph 6.88).

We recommend that in England transitional arrangements are put in place so that current apprentices retain a contractual entitlement to a minimum of £95 a week for the remainder of their apprenticeship or until they are entitled to the National Minimum Wage (paragraph 6.92).

We recommend that the Government includes the review of the apprentice minimum wage rate and arrangements in our annual terms of reference (paragraph 6.96).

Particular Groups of Workers

We recommend that the Government produces, in conjunction with interested parties, sector specific guidance on the National Minimum Wage for the entertainment sector (paragraph 4.50).

We recommend that HMRC investigates whether contract and agency cleaners in the hotel sector are receiving their entitlement under the National Minimum Wage for their hours worked (paragraph 4.88).

Compliance and Enforcement

We recommend that the Government commits, as a minimum, to maintaining current funding in real terms for monitoring and enforcement of the National Minimum Wage until at least March 2014 (paragraph 7.40).