The adult rate of the national minimum wage will go up three per cent on 1 October, from £6.31 to £6.50 per hour, the Low Pay Commission (LPC) says.

In a statement accompanying the announcement, the Commission said that workers on minimum wage had received much higher pay increases than other workers, but that all groups had experienced falling average real wages because of inflation.

LPC chair David Norgrove said the decision balanced the need to alleviate pressure from low-paid workers with the risk of putting undue pressure on businesses.

He said: “We have had to balance the risk of recommending more than business and the economy can afford, bearing in mind the pressures on low-paying sectors and small firms, against the risk of doing too little to start to restore the real value of the earnings of the lowest paid.”

The minimum wage was introduced in April 1999 at a rate of £3.60 per hour.