The customary annual cycle of minimum wage reviews undertaken by the employment forum was disrupted by Covid 19. As a result, earlier in 2021, the minister for social security conducted her own public consultation on various minimum wage issues including the timing and level of the next minimum wage increase. The minister sought and received approval from the states assembly for regulations under the covid-19 (enabling provisions)(Jersey) law 2020 to allow her to proceed with a minimum wage increase on 1 January 2022.
The Covid regulations, approved by the assembly on 8 October 2021, enabled the minister to set the minimum wage rate at £9.22 per hour, an increase of 10.8% on the previous figure of £8.32 per hour, achieving the target of 45% of mean average earnings previously agreed by the states assembly.
The current minimum wage rate was implemented on 1 January 2022. This was the first rise in the minimum wage rate since 2020. Ordinarily, the employment forum would have consulted, at the minister's direction, on the future level of the minimum wage.
The employment law requires the forum, as part of the minimum wage and offset rate-setting process, to consult "such organisations representative of employers as they think fit; such organisations representative of employees as they think fit; and, if they think fit, any other body or person" before making a recommendation to the social security minister (Article 20(4) of the employment (Jersey) Law 2003).
Link to the Consultation: https://www.gov.je/Government/Consultations/Pages/MinimumWageJersey.aspx
Link to the Survey: https://survey.gov.je/s/2STYF0/