THE TUC has demanded an end to “low-pay Britain” as it sets out a roadmap to a high-wage economy, including a £15-an-hour minimum wage.

With families facing a “desperate autumn and worse winter” amid plummeting take-home pay and soaring inflation, the union body said it is “time the UK led the world on pay.”

In a new report released yesterday, it urged the Tory government to work with independent advisers at the Low Pay Commission to “end the longest, harshest squeeze on UK living standards and deliver workers their fair share of the wealth they create.”

To achieve this, ministers should aim to increase the minimum wage to 75 per cent of median hourly pay and return the economy to the normal wage growth seen before the 2008 financial crash, the TUC said. 

The current minimum wage for those 23 and over is £9.50 per hour, with lower rates for younger people. 

All workers, regardless of age, should be eligible for the same rate, which must be raised to £15 as quickly as possible, it added.

The union body also called on Westminster to bring the next minimum wage uprating forward from April 2023 to this October to help households with what are expected to be eye-watering increases in household energy bills this autumn. 

Whoever takes the reins in Downing Street next month needs a “real plan” to boost pay, said the TUC, which noted that outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s rival to replace him, former chancellor Rishi Sunak, have together promised a high-wage economy more than 20 times. 

Pay growth should at least match the average of 3.8 per cent seen under Labour between 1997 and 2009, it urged.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Every worker should be able to afford a decent standard of living, but millions are struggling to get by and are now being pushed to the brink by eye-watering bills and soaring prices.

“For too long workers have been told that businesses can’t afford to pay them more, but again and again the evidence has shown that firms are still making profits and increasing jobs — we can afford higher wages.

“It’s time to put an end to low-pay Britain.”

Putting a stop to the “destructive trend of standstill wages is not just a convenient political slogan,” added Ms O’Grady, slamming a “decade of abject Tory economic failure.”

The union confederation highlighted that, since the minimum wage was first introduced, its level as a proportion of the median average wage has slowly increased, from 47 per cent in 1999 to a projected 66 per cent by 2024. 

A more ambitious aim of 75 per cent is the “logical next step,” the TUC argued.

It said the task of charting the exact path to £15 an hour should be given to the Low Pay Commission, which can recommend an “emergency brake” if it believes the target needs to be delayed.  

To reach £15, assuming a new minimum wage target at 75 per cent of the median wage, average hourly pay of approximately £20 an hour would be needed, the union body said, but median wages are currently lagging well behind that on £14.85.

Moves to strengthen and extend collective bargaining, boost demand and therefore growth and reform corporate governance to “prioritise long-term sustainable growth, rather than short-term focus on shareholder returns” would also help to tackle the problem, the TUC said. 

And a “lifelong learning and skills strategy to fill labour shortages and boost productivity” would benefit everyone, it said.