The Minimum Wage Jobs (MWJ) Framework is the most operationally efficient version of a Job Guarantee for the United Kingdom. It achieves the dual objective of a modern stabilisation system: eliminating involuntary unemployment while providing a permanent anchor for inflation.
By utilising existing legal and operational infrastructure, MWJ enables public-purpose employers, such as charities, the NHS, and local authorities, to scale up their work by drawing on a ready supply of available workers. The process is integrated into the heart of the UK’s tax system; employers simply notify the government of a scheme participant via a new field in their standard PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submissions.
This framework removes the financial barriers to expanding public-purpose services. For each eligible worker, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) pays wages directly and settles all tax and National Insurance with HMRC. Participating organisations can engage full-time labour at zero gross payroll cost, enabling social value and community projects to be delivered without personnel budget constraints.
In addition, MWJ serves as a powerful automatic stabiliser. Participation scales naturally with the economy, rising during downturns and falling during booms, and responding immediately to local labour-market conditions. Unlike interest-rate changes, which suffer from long, variable lags, MWJ provides a surgical response to economic shifts.
Crucially, by shifting macroeconomic stabilisation from the money market to the labour market, MWJ ends the practice of using unemployment as an inflation-control tool and removes the economy’s structural dependence on interest rate hikes. As a result, interest rates can settle at their natural, permanently low level, providing immediate and lasting relief to millions of mortgaged and renting households.
The framework is a fully distributed policy that requires no new agencies, committees, or open-ended ministerial powers. It functions as a seamless extension of the existing tax and benefit architecture, operating automatically across every region and nation of the UK. The system is designed to be “light-touch,” integrating seamlessly with the distinct tax policies of devolved governments. By processing payments through the established PAYE and RTI frameworks, the policy scales to local needs rather than through central command.
Implementation is pragmatic and low-risk. One-off implementation costs are conservatively estimated at £100 million, with annual running costs under £50 million: less than the current cost of operating the Monetary Policy Committee and the Debt Management Office.
The result is a transformational reform that is operationally simple, fiscally responsible, and deliverable within a single Parliament.
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