Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill — Clause 144 — Report on National Minimum Wage — Enforcement — 19 Nov 2014 at 14:30

The majority of MPs voted against requiring an annual report on the minimum wage covering matters including enforcement and compliance.

MPs were considering the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill[1]. The motion rejected by the majority of MPs taking part in this vote was:

  • That the amendment be made.

The rejected amendment in question was:

  • Amendment 8, page 134, line 4, at end insert—
  • ‘(6A) The Secretary of State shall provide an annual report to Parliament on the effectiveness of—
  • (a) enforcement of the national minimum wage;
  • (b) the level of the financial penalty for underpayment, including but not limited to its impact on compliance; and
  • (c) changes in provisions relating to the national minimum wage improving other measures of pay in the labour market.”

Had it not been rejected the above text would have been added to the end of Clause 144 of the Bill, titled Amount of financial penalty for underpayment of national minimum wage.

The clause to which the rejected amendment would have been added made provision for the maximum penalty for non-compliance with the minimum wage to be determined taking into account the amount owed to each worker to a maximum of £20,000 for every under-paid employee.

During the debate Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop commented on the element of the rejected motion providing:

  • "The Secretary of State shall provide an annual report to Parliament on ... the effectiveness of changes in provisions relating to the national minimum wage improving other measures of pay in the labour market"

saying[3]:

  • "obviously means that Labour wants better collective bargaining in workplaces".

The provision is not easy to interpret but appears in fact to relate to the impact changes to national minimum wage legislation have on other measures of pay, such as perhaps for example median pay, mean pay, or total pay.

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Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Alliance0 10100.0%
Con258 (+2 tell) 0085.8%
DUP0 7087.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 1050.0%
Lab0 212 (+2 tell)082.9%
LDem43 0076.8%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 2066.7%
SNP0 60100.0%
Total:301 233083.9%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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