The minimum wage rises to £5.05 an hour from tomorrow (October 1).

Adults pay has increased from £4.85, while 18 to 21 year olds will get 15p more at £4.25.

A report from the Low Pay Commission sparked the rise, saying the number of jobs has grown since the minimum wage was introduced in 1999.

"The increase will see well over a million low-paid workers with more cash in their pockets, many of them women working part-time," Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said.

"But, as ever, with each minimum wage increase comes the predictable wave of protests from business saying that it cannot afford another rise."

But business leaders are asking for an urgent reappraisal of planned future increases to the minimum wage. "When the wage was introduced it was set at a reasonable level but since we have seen large increases," Lewis Sidnick, employment policy adviser at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said.

"The government needs to recognise that the economy is worsening, while business costs are rising."

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