The Trades Union Congress has claimed a victory for the minimum wage after ten years of protecting the lowest earners.

It has hit back at critics of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) scheme who claimed it would be a disaster leading to thousands of job losses, by highlighting its benefits to the UK workforce.

Originally set at £3.60 an hour in 1999, the minimum wages now sits at £5.73, and increase of 60 percent in less than a decade. Over the same period the Retail Price Index has risen by a third and average earnings by 35 percent, showing the NMW has raised the spending power and living standards of the low paid.

The TUC claims women workers, workers from ethnic minority backgrounds, those with disabilities, and younger and older workers are among the groups who have benefitted. The NMW benefits five per cent of employees, and the gender pay gap for this group of workers has narrowed from 10.5 per cent in 1998 to 3.8 per cent in 2007.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The minimum wage is one of this Government's greatest successes. It is an integral part of building a fairer Britain, and its success has shown that despite scare-mongering from business, the economy can easily cope with sensible labour market regulation. Indeed, our current economic woes seem to be caused by too little regulation rather than too much.

“If we want to build a strong UK economy that is fair to all its citizens then we must continue to develop the minimum wage during the coming decade.”

He added: “The recession was caused by very highly paid people damaging the nation's financial system. It would not be fair to make the low paid suffer a wage freeze while city bankers still get bonuses, and when there is no economic necessity to do so.”