SIR: I was interested to read the article on (January 28) regarding Care Home workers and the minimum wage.

It is an absolute disgrace, that as we approach the millennium, this country does not have a national minimum wage.

To pay anybody less than £3 per hour for their labour in 1998, is an absolute insult.

Until we pay people a decent days pay, for a decent day's work, the gap between these 'haves' and 'have nots' will continue to grow.

As has been well established, we work the longest hours in Europe, simply because employees have to put in excessive hours, to obtain a decent wage, because of the poorly paid hourly rate.

I am unemployed, and have to exist on £2,555.80 per year, and have no say in what I get per week, in contrast to public sector workers who are bleating about their paltry pay rise offer. Let them live on what I get per week, and see how they survive.

H W Bateman

Radcliffe Road

Bolton

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