The Low Pay Commission (LPC) is an independent body in the United Kingdom, established in 1997, that advises the government on the National Minimum Wage. It is an advisory

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of ...

of the

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is a department of His Majesty's Government. The department was formed during a machinery of government change on 14 July 2016, following Theresa May's appointment as Prime ...

(BEIS).

History and role

The LPC was established in July 1997 on a non-statutory basis before being confirmed in legislation by the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. Each year, the LPC advises the government on what rates the different minimum wages in the UK should be, announcing its recommendation six months before it would come into force. It is then up to the government to accept or reject the LPC's recommendations. In the past, the government has usually accepted the wage levels advocated by the LPC.

Structure

The LPC consists of nine Low Pay Commissioners who are selected by BEIS. The Commissioners are a mixture of employers,

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

ists and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

Chairs

* 2009 to 2017 – Sir David Norgrove * 2017 to present (2017 to 2019 as interim chair) – Bryan Sanderson

Proposals for reform

In March 2014 the Resolution Foundation issued the report ''More Than A Minimum'' which proposed that the LPC's role should be expanded to include publishing the following: *An indication of its intentions for the minimum wage one year ahead. *Analysis to show which sectors of the economy could afford to pay more than the minimum wage to encourage wage rises. *Advice for government on low pay policy in the same way that the Office of Budget Responsibility influences

fiscal policy In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection ( taxes or tax cuts) and expenditure to influence a country's economy. The use of government revenue expenditures to influence macroeconomic variable ...

References

External links

*
Catalogue of evidence submitted to the LPC, 1997–1998
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...