What 1998 U.K. law created the legal framework for the National Minimum Wage?

The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 created the legal framework for the United Kingdom’s National Minimum Wage.

The act was passed during Tony Blair’s Labour government and came into force in stages before the first national rates began on April 1, 1999. It established a legal wage floor and created the Low Pay Commission to recommend rate levels and related policy to the government.

The law was designed to reduce very low pay while avoiding a wage floor set entirely through direct political calculation. The Low Pay Commission consults employers, workers, and other groups before making recommendations, although ministers make the final decisions.

The U.K. system later added different age-related rates and the National Living Wage for eligible older workers. “National Living Wage” is therefore not simply another name for the original 1998 act; it is a later rate category within the broader statutory framework.