THOUSANDS of workers in the south will today benefit from an increase of 30p an hour in the national minimum wage.

Employers must pay a mimimum £4.50 an hour for adults and £3.80 for people aged between 18 and 21.

As previously reported by business South, experts are warning bosses they could see operating costs rise by more than one per cent of turnover on the back of the wages increase.

Another rise is also on the horizon. From next October, adults will be paid £4.85 an hour and 18 to 21-year-olds £4.10, an increase of 7.8 per cent.

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said: "We are committed to eradicating

poverty pay. Despite the scaremongering, which claimed jobs would be put at risk by the minimum wage, we now have record levels of employment."

But the Forum of Private Businesses, which represents many firms in the south, today sounded the alarm bells.

Chief executive Nick Goulding said: "An extra cost to businesses is the last thing that they need at the moment and I am concerned that some businesses will find it difficult to cope."

Meanwhile, the Department of Trade and Industry is running a campaign to publicise the rise.

That will be underlined with tough enforcement procedures - last year alone the Inland Revenue carried out more than 6,000 investigations in the UK into firms who flouted the law.

According to an Act which came into force in July, former workers are entitled to backdated claims for arrears if they were paid less than the legal minimum when they were with that company.

Be legal. Check out www.dti.gov.uk/er/nmw