ABSTRACT
In small independent firms largely informal pay determination provides considerable scope for discretion within a framework of either individual employeremployee bargaining or unilateral management determination (Gilman et al., 2002), in spite of the NMW (Case study 5.5). In a low-paying region (North Wales) nearly one-third of small employers were making use of the development rate (Sehkaran and Lucas, 2001). As noted earlier, they justified lower pay for young workers who were less experienced, had lower skills and were less productive, but age in itself was not a determinant of pay.
