Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 5, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following:"(5) The Commission shall act as a watchdog of the incidence of low pay by examining the prevalence of pay two-thirds or below of median earnings in the current period in each sector of the economy, and report its recommendations to reduce the share of employees in each sector who earn below two-thirds of the hourly median wage over the following 3 year period.

(6) The Commission shall examine and report on key patterns in paid and unpaid open market internships providing a regulatory framework for internships and to support professional associations to promote ethical internship programmes.

(7) The Commission shall examine and report on the effectiveness of existing policies to enforce the National Minimum Wage and make recommendations for improvement of compliance and enforcement.".

When the national minimum wage was introduced, it was established at two thirds of the median wage. Less than that is considered low pay. It was stated that the minimum wage would be at that level in future. Obviously, this-----

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