Ed Miliband: Labour Will Significantly Hike the Minimum Wage

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband will vow to "significantly" raise the UK's National Minimum Wage, linking it to average wages.

The move comes ahead of the publication of a report into income inequality and working poverty from Alan Buckle, the former deputy chairman of KPMG.

The NMW, which was introduced in 1998 under a Labour government, currently stands at £6.31 ($10.62, €7.75) per hour for workers 21 and over.

The rate is set by the government who is advised by the independent The Low Pay Commission (LPC).

But Miliband will claim that Britain is "still one of the lowest paid countries among the world's advanced economies".

"So we have to go further, we have to write the next chapter in the history of Labour's battle to make work pay," the Labour leader will argue.

However, Miliband will not announce the exact increase until closer to the 2015 General Election.

Instead, he will say: "A Labour government will establish a clear link between the level of the minimum wage and the scale of wages paid to other workers in our economy."

According to a report from the Resolution Foundation, the the NMW in 2013 was set at 54.6% of average earnings and the government should increase this to 60%.

The news comes after the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats have said they want to increase the NMW.

The Chancellor George Osborne told the BBC in January - when Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation was 2% - that the country's economy could afford to raise the NMW rate.

But the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has stressed that businesses will be "concerned" about Labour's proposed target.

"The minimum wage was introduced by a Labour government and it has widespread support from political parties and from employers," said Katja Hall, deputy director general of the CBI.

"Let's not jeopardise that. Let's trust the LPC to do their job."