§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the estimated total cost will be to businesses in the United Kingdom in 2003–04 of the increase in the national minimum wage. [110449]
§ Alan JohnsonThe increase in the national minimum wage in October 2003 is estimated to cost businesses in the United Kingdom a total of between £180 and £400 million in 2003–04, assuming that the wages of the low paid would have increased in line with RPI inflation or earnings growth in the absence of an increase in the minimum wage.