YWCA England & Wales

News

Categories: press releases, YWCA in parliament
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
YWCA takes over Parliament for the day!

Young women mark ten years of National Minimum Wage

Four young women from YWCA centres had the opportunity to voice their opinions to influential decision makers at two events in Parliament last week.

The introduction of the national minimum wage in 1999 had a profound impact on female workers. It brought the basic wages of those in industries traditionally associated with women, such as retail, hospitality and hairdressing, in line with other industries.

YWCA teamed up with UNISON and the British Youth Council to celebrate the tenth birthday of the national minimum wage and discuss how it can be made more effective.

Kayleigh Devlin and Belinda Moreton from YWCA Northampton (pictured left with Sally Keeble MP) and Sheri Dobbs from YWCA Cwmafan attended the reception and mingled with MPs such as Harriet Harman, Judy Mallaber and Hywel Francis. The young women also enjoyed a short tour of Parliament.

During her speech, Sheri explained how she supported the minimum wage but that it still needed to improve. She spoke about her experiences of working on the much lower level of the youth rate of minimum wage which YWCA believes is discriminatory and unfair.

Sheri was involved in YWCA’s More than one rung campaign and told the audience how she thought apprentices should be paid the equivalent of the minimum wage. Helen Berresford, YWCA’s Parliamentary officer, said: “There were many nods of agreement in the room as she spoke!”

At the same time, Charlotte Lowe of YWCA Cwmafan was speaking at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Children in Wales. Charlotte spoke to a group of Welsh MPs about the different types of discrimination that young women faced.

The meeting was discussing the forthcoming Equality Bill which will exclude young people under 18 from one of the definitions of age discrimination. YWCA believes this is unfair as we know that young women face multiple forms of discrimination.

Charlotte’s direct evidence will form part of our lobbying activity around the Equality Bill and shows once again that our campaigning is built on the real experiences of young women.