As Britain's national minumum wage goes up today to a princely £5.93 an hour, this week's Focus podcast takes a more in-depth look at one of New Labour's most radical and controversial policies, often portrayed as Tony Blair's major achievement in the field of social justice.
Despite fierce opposition from the Conservative party, business leaders and, perhaps more suprprisingly, the trade union movement and large parts of the Labour party, the national minimum wage was introduced in 1999. It has since become an accepted part of the employment landscape, and few - certainly not the ConLib coalition government - would now argue against it.
But how effective has the minumum wage actually been at lifting people out of poverty? According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, as many children are now living in poverty as were in 2000. And what does a mimimum wage mean when it isn't actually a living wage?
Jon Henley talks to Guardian writers and social affairs commentators Polly Toynbee and Tom Clark, plus economist Steve Hughes from the British Chambers of Commerce and Steve Sherwood from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the major multinationals that has decided to pay a London Living Wage.
We also join students, academic staff and contract workers at University College London on an emotional day when provost Malcolm Grant dramatically reversed his opposition to the university's lowest-paid workers earning more than the bare national minimum.
