Junior members of staff in the retail motor sector should see a pay increase from tomorrow due to a rise in the national minimum wage.

The national minimum wage will rise by 35p to £4.85 per hour for adult workers aged 22 and over, while the development rate for young people aged 18-21 will become £4.10 per hour. On the same day, a minimum wage for 16 and 17-year-olds will be established for the first time. This has been set at £3 per hour.

Sector wages are supervised via the National Joint Council for the Motor Vehicle Retail and Repair Industry (NJC), the industry’s pay rate regulator.

Nick Jones, the Retail Motor Industry Federation’s human resources director, says: "Negotiations on revised NJC pay rates for unindentured junior employees aged 16 and 17 years, apprentices, and adult employees will begin in November to take effect on January 1, 2005, and these negotiations will take account of the new national minimum wage rates."