Professor Brown says 5% of workers will benefit from the law

A minimum wage will have more benefits than disadvantages for Jersey, a UK professor has said.

The minimum hourly rate of pay is one of the proposals in Jersey's draft employment law written by the Employment and Social Security Committee.

Professor William Brown from the Faculty of Economics and Politics at Cambridge University was a special advisor on the draft job law.

He says it has been received positively in the UK and will not adversely affect the Jersey economy.

It will benefit something between 5% and perhaps 8% of the working population Professor William Brown

The proposed employment law aims to protect the working rights of vulnerable islanders.

It sets out the introduction of a new minimum wage to be paid to all employees above compulsory school age working more than eight hours a week - which has yet to be decided.

It will also introduce employment tribunals for people who think they have been sacked unfairly.

The Employment and Social Security Committee said the law is supposed to clarify any employment relationship and lays down minimum standards in the workplace.

Professor Brown said of what has been drafted: "It will have little effect on inflation. Certainly there is no evidence at all that it will have an effect on inflation.

"It will benefit something between 5% and perhaps 8% of the working population, and, to some extent, it will encourage employers to manage there labour rather better than otherwise be the case."