National Minimum Wage: Journey

National Minimum Wage: Journey

It pays to know your hourly wage.

In 1998 the Blair government passed the National Minimum Wage Act. This created a legal requirement for employers to pay workers a set minimum hourly wage. To raise awareness of this legislation, a series of public information films were created by the government Central Office of Information. This film, set in the heart of an inner-city British South Asian community, is one of them.

The camera takes a journey around schools, shops, workplaces and streets. The message of the minimum wage being £3.60 takes the place of shop signs, graffiti, food labels and posters. The repetition makes this information unmissable for audiences.

The 1990s saw a growing prominence and interest in British-Asian film, music, fashion and television in British popular culture. TV comedy Goodness Gracious Me, the music of Cornershop and the film Bhaji on the Beach are just some of the examples that found mainstream success with British audiences. The public information film borrows elements of this in its use of setting, style and Hindi pop soundtrack. By placing the film at the centre of the community, it has the chance to directly address South Asian audiences. Wider audiences might also be reached by using pop culture references of the time to convey its important message.

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How We Worked

Explore how yesterday's workplaces were recorded on video - and were infiltrated by it

From the late 19th century, the earliest film cameras captured thronging workers leaving their factories, their faces filling the frames of early films. Ever since, the moving image has had a close relationship with the workplaces where so many of us spend so much of our lives. As both screen technologies and the patterns of work evolved across the 20th century this relationship grew ever more varied and complex. Film itself played every possible working role in relation to all parts of the economy, the public and the private sectors, the factory and the office - observing and documenting, dramatising and satirising, training and campaigning. In the videotape era it became ever easier for cameras to film in workplaces - and for moving images to be shown there, via players and monitors. This collection explores the working worlds of the recent past, marked by economic and technological change, a world so close to our own and yet so far away.

23 videos in this collection

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The A-Z of Work Experience

  • Chorlton-cum-Hardy
  • 2002
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Stationery Objects

  • 1992
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National Minimum Wage: Journey

  • 1999
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IT82: The Home

  • 1982
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Working Hard - Nottingham Division

  • 1980
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A Day in the Life of a Hospital Pharmacist

  • Worthing
  • 1998
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Make Health Your Business

  • Manchester
  • 1996
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The Goldsmiths' Company Lecture: Vivienne Becker

  • 2004
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Station Assistance Support on the London Underground

  • Westminster
  • 2002
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Disability Discrimination Act: Act Now

  • 2004
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Two World Famous Things About Batley

  • Batley
  • 2001
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Work, Rest, and Play

  • Morley
  • 2006
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The Goldsmiths' Company: a Silversmithing Demonstration

  • 1990
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Firewoman

  • Bradford
  • 1989
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One Man and a Van

  • Manchester
  • 2006
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Employment Centres

  • Belfast
  • 1989
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Your Career in the Hotel and Catering Industry

  • Manchester
  • 1985
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Work in Progress

  • Sheffield
  • 2007
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Park, Co Derry

  • 2012
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Ballybay, Co Monaghan

  • 2012
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30 Years of UTV

  • Belfast
  • 1989
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Farming Ulster

  • Cultra
  • 1992
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Everybody Out

  • 1979
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