ABSTRACT
It was not until the 1987 election campaign that the TUC and the Labour Party clearly came out in favour of introducing a national minimum wage in Great Britain. One of the main arguments against the introduction of a minimum wage is the disemployment effects that it would generate. In the eyes of the free-marketeers, wages should depend solely on what the employee is worth to the employer. Empirical evidence on the other hand would suggest that minimum wages, unless set 'ludicrously' high, do not have adverse effects on employment. The trade union hostility to minimum wages has traditionally been based on their belief that collective bargaining is the only healthy way out of poverty wages. If the national minimum wage is burdened with too many virtues then it will sink under its own weight and will not even be given a chance to display its potential to evolve and come up to greater expectations.
