Healey Won't Say Whether 18-to-20-Year-Olds Will Get Full Minimum Wage Before Next Election

Labour's 2024 manifesto promised to remove "discriminatory age bands" from the minimum wage. Now, after a Budget that left a gap between the rates for younger and older workers, the Chancellor won't say when it closes.

John Healey made the comments in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, to be broadcast on the BBC's Sunday programme. Asked whether workers aged 18 to 20 would be paid the same as older workers by the next election, he did not say yes.

"We'll take one step at a time," Healey said.

The numbers behind the gap

At the Budget, Healey applied a blanket 3.9% increase to both the national minimum wage and the national living wage. He said he had accepted the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission.

Pay for 18-to-20-year-olds in 2026 will rise to £11.27 an hour, while those over 20 will be paid a minimum of £13.21. Because younger and older workers received the same increase, a gap between the two rates remains this year.

In 2024, Labour committed to closing the gap between the adult minimum wage and pay for 18-to-20-year-olds. The blanket 3.9% increase prompted questions about that promise, and unions have previously expressed concerns about a potential delay.

What Healey said

Pressed on whether Labour might break the manifesto commitment, Healey replied: "There's no question about whether or if. It's a question of when. It's a question of how fast."

He framed the delay as a jobs issue. "I want to make sure that we can look hard at those trade-offs that inevitably are there between jobs and wages," he said.

He also pointed to youth unemployment. "I want to take business, I want to take trade unions with me, and with the Government, because together we have to get into what at the moment is a moral shame on this nation, a million youngsters written off, without any prospect of being helped into work and making a contribution to this country for the future," Healey said.

He added that he legislated for the national minimum wage as a new MP when it was first introduced, and said "we're going to have to continue to make those trade-offs between jobs and wages."

The union and Labour-left problem

The BBC's political team judged the answer likely to anger the unions and some on the left of the party. Healey said Labour remains committed to the ambition but hinted the plan to equalise wages might be delayed, partly to encourage businesses to employ younger workers.

His position is that the commitment stands and only the timing is open. His stated reason is that a faster move requires weighing the trade-offs between jobs and wages. He has not given a date.

Spending cuts left open

The same interview covered the Budget's plans for departmental spending. The Budget documents spell out real-terms reductions to some government departments in the years to come. The Institute for Fiscal Studies questioned this week whether the government will follow through on them.

Asked whether he would make cuts of more than 2% a year to some departments, Healey did not give a figure. "We've already demonstrated we are prepared to take hard decisions about the priorities in government," he said.

He added: "We will carry that through to the 10-year plan and the spending review next year." He said the Budget also set out "the ways that we're preparing and the work we've got under way to prepare for those spending review decisions."

That is not a denial of the cuts. It is also not a commitment to specific numbers.

Two decisions are now pending. One is how quickly the 18-to-20 rate converges with the adult rate, which Healey says depends on weighing jobs against wages and bringing business and unions along. The other is which departments absorb real-terms cuts, which he says will be carried through in the 10-year plan and next year's spending review.

Until then, 18-to-20-year-olds will be paid £11.27 an hour against £13.21 for older workers, and the Chancellor has set no date for that to change.