Insight

A minimum wage of £8 an hour

A minimum wage of £8 an hour

To examine this issue, we checked that voters were actually aware of what the minimum wage is at present. When we asked voters what the minimum wage was for those aged 21+, the median answer was £6.50 which is the actual correct figure.

When we then decided to probe voters on what they thought the minimum wage should be, the median average answer was £7.90, a rather striking 21% increase on the present rate, and close to the £8 figure that Ed Miliband has previously stated as the minimum wage rate he’d like to set by 2020.

A minimum wage that is pegged to prices

We then concentrated on the a series of general suggestions for how regular changes in the minimum wage should be treated. Interestingly, only handful (4%) believed that there should be a real terms cut in the minimum wage.

Just under two thirds (63%) believed that the minimum wage should rise each year in line with inflation, while a third (33%) believed that it should rise each year above the rate of inflation.

How should the minimum wage rise in future?

Here there were clear party differences, with Conservatives voters for the most part believing that the minimum wage should track inflation, while just under half (46%) of Labour voters believed that it should rise above the rate of price increases.

Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 1,969 GB adults aged 18+ from 10th to 12th February 2015. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.