NMWA

The acronym NMWA may refer to:

Museums

Legislation

National Minimum Wage Act 1998

The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 creates a minimum wage across the United Kingdom, currently £6.70 per hour for workers aged 21+, £5.30 per hour for workers aged 18–20. It was a flagship policy of the Labour Party in the UK during its 1997 election campaign and is still pronounced today in Labour Party circulars as an outstanding gain for ‘at least 1.5 million people’. The national minimum wage (NMW) took effect on 1 April 1999.

Background

No national minimum wage existed prior to 1998, although there were a variety of systems of wage controls focused on specific industries under the Trade Boards Act 1909.

Part of the reason for Labour's minimum wage policy was the decline of trade union membership over recent decades (weakening employees' bargaining power), as well as a recognition that the employees most vulnerable to low pay (especially in service industries) were rarely unionised in the first place. Labour had returned to government in 1997 after 18 years in opposition, and a minimum wage had been a party policy as long ago as 1986 under the leadership of Neil Kinnock.