UK's minimum wage one of highest in Europe

The UK's minimum wage is the third highest in Europe and almost double that of the US according to new research conducted by Eurostat, the European Unions Statistics body. The legal minimum monthly pay in the UK in January was £920 (1,361 euro), behind only Luxembourg with £1,060 (1,570 euro) and Ireland with £948 (1,403 euro).

The minimum wage in the US is worth only £456 (676 euro) a month, but is set to rise for the first time in a decade, increasing from £2.60 ($5.15) an hour to £2.94 ($5.85) next month.

Countries that have only joined the EU in the past three years fared the worst, including Bulgaria, where the minimum wage is worth only £62 (92 euro) a month, followed by Romania with £77 (114 euro) and Latvia with £116 (172 euro).

The research also pointed to the proportion of employees on minimum wages in 2005, with Spain (0.8%), Malta (1.5%), Slovakia (1.7%), and the UK (1.8%) all dipping under 2%, with France having the highest proportion of low-paid workers at 16.8%, followed by Bulgaria (16%), Latvia (12%), Luxembourg (11%) and Lithuania (10.3%).

In the US, 1.3% of employees received the minimum wage.

Scottish Parliament Costs Announced

Building magazine has reported the final costs for the construction of the Scottish Parliament.

The anticipated yet adjusted cost of the works was £430.5m, the actual cost has now been disclosed at £414m. Whilst this reflects a minor saving it should be noted the cost of the construction work is over ten times the original budget. The original estimate of the works was a mere £40m.

The project, which was delivered three years late was severely delayed and suffered from continual costs increases.

Despite an independent review of the construction process no blame has been attributed to one party. The project team included, Bovis Lend Lease, Davis Langdon,EMBT/RMJM, Arup

The project team must be sighing a collective sigh of relief, if only the taxpayer felt the same way.

The taxpayer does seem to lose out quite regularly, it has been interesting to see the rise in the Olympic Costs prior to any work even starting. Hopefully the construction industry can demonstrate its ability to provide world class buildings on time and within budget.