It’s funny – you may think that this is definitely a QTWTAIN but, as ever when working with data, you are often surprised. Who knew that in every year after its first birthday, with the Labour government in charge, the minimum wage rose above inflation? The lowest pay rate possible dropped below the inflation rate in 2009, the year after the financial crisis and has trudged along behind it ever since. The new wage will again be lower than the projected inflation rate, so when Vince Cable was announcing a rise, he was probably actually announcing a fall.
I turned this around pretty quickly after the announcement, deciding on whether we wanted CPI or RPI (the government measure has changed) and finding both the historic minimum wage rises and the historic inflation rises.
A sprint then. But when it comes to the minimum wage catching up with the cost of living – that’s going to be a marathon run.