THE national minimum wage will have a huge impact on low-paid workers in Pendle, says the area's MP - but many bosses aren't happy about it.

Eight per cent of the area's full-time employees and one in four part-time workers will benefit from a pay boost when the minimum £3.60 an hour rate comes into effect in April, said Labour's Gordon Prentice.

"Poverty pay has blighted this area for years," said Mr Prentice.

"Wages are so low in East Lancashire that the new minimum wage will make an enormous difference to thousands of people."

He added: "The minimum wage will end the practice of Scrooge employers being indirectly subsidised by taxpayers through the tax system. Family credit, for example, goes to people in work but on a very low wage.

"All successful businesses, large and small, have one thing in common; they recognise that the most important asset they have is the people that work for them. That also means paying them a decent wage. "Unfortunately some employers think that the only way to compete is in terms of cutting costs.

"They pay their workers low wages and expect them to work long hours in order to earn enough money to live on."

But Michael Damms, chief executive of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said the area's struggling traditional industries such as textiles and footwear would be hardest hit by the move.

"This will squeeze those traditional industries, where we have already seen job losses over the last year, the hardest," he said.

Mr Damms said a survey of 1,000 firms across East Lancashire carried out by the Chamber a year ago revealed four out of ten firms would be affected by the minimum wage.

"The majority of companies, particularly the larger ones, don't see it as a problem," he said.

"Broadly speaking we believe firms should have the authority to set pay rates because they are having to compete, not just on a local stage but a worldwide one."

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