Labour to raise minimum wage by €2 if returned to government

Tánasite Joan Burton has made a commitment to increase the minimum wage by some €2 an hour if Labour is returned to government after the election.

Speaking at the launch of the party’s jobs plan at Boann Distillery in Drogheda, Co Louth on Thursday, Ms Burton said it was realistic to commit to raising the minimum wage to €11.30 an hour over the next government’s term, which is being oppposed by business groups.

This would be on top of the 50c increase implemented by the outgoing Government in January, bringing the rate to €9.15, and an earlier restoration by the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition of a €1 cut which was introduced by the Fianna Fáil-Green party government in 2010.

Announcing a package of measures dealing with employment which are costed at €954 million, the Tánaiste reiterated the promise to have full employment in two years time and to create 50,000 apprenticeships by 2021.

She also pledged to rewrite welfare rules to develop a new Working Family Benefit which would allow low paid working parents to earn at least €12 an hour, with qualification for the new system based on people’s income rather than the hours they work.

“Behind every job is a person or family benefiting from recovery in their own lives,” she said.

Ms Burton also reiterated Labour’s childcare plan which was unveiled last month, including an immediate cap on creche costs at €4.25 an hour which would come down to €2 an hour by 2021.

Voters wanted stability to continue the recovery and would vote for Labour in significant numbers, Ms Burton added. “They won’t want a situation like a Greece or Spain where we won’t be able to form a government.”

Other initiatives set out by Labour included a proposal to employ a further 15,000 people in the manufacturing industry over the next four years, an additional 10,000 places on the JobsPlus programme, which gives employers grants when they hire someone considered long-term unemployed, and a pledge to keep the State’s corporation tax rate at 12.5 per cent.