The Government has announced an increase in the minimum wage, starting from next October. We can only assume that they have completely lost the plot.
It means this: as the economy slowly picks up, and companies are looking cautiously to take on more workers, they cannot take on an employee for some menial task for less than about £1,000 a month, even if the employee is happy to work for that wage.
The poor guy, trying to do the best for himself and not claim on the government, will just have to stay on the dole, right when we needed him to be working.
Well done, Osborne, your Economics badge is in the post.
Showing posts with label minimum wage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minimum wage. Show all posts
14 April, 2011
21 September, 2010
The minimum wage
The Government has announced increases to the minimum wage to take effect from October. The basic minimum wage will increase from £5.80 to £5.93, an increase of just over 2% and the starting age will be 21, not 22. There are similar increases to the rates for younger workers and a new apprenticeship rate.
OK, I know it's not much, but I still think it's a mistake. The minimum wage keeps people who could and would work for less out of the jobs market. Minimum wage earners are disproportionally likely to work for small companies, which is where we are expecting our growth to come from.
A lot of political bullets are going to have to be bitten during the austerity measures and this should have been one of them.
OK, I know it's not much, but I still think it's a mistake. The minimum wage keeps people who could and would work for less out of the jobs market. Minimum wage earners are disproportionally likely to work for small companies, which is where we are expecting our growth to come from.
A lot of political bullets are going to have to be bitten during the austerity measures and this should have been one of them.
14 August, 2009
The minimum wage
There are whisperings in a couple of right wing think tanks that we ought in these difficult times to be having another look at the minimum wage, currently £5.73 per hour.
It has been said that a minimum wage is either useless or dangerous and there is some truth in this. Imagine it were 57.3p per hour (about £23 per week): it would have no effect whatsoever. No one works for that kind of money any more. But imagine it were £57.30 per hour, that is to say it would be illegal to employ anyone for less than £2,300 per week: huge swathes of British industry would be wiped out, millions on the dole.
What proponents of a minimum wage say is that a happy medium can be found which doesn't reduce employment but does help people. Whether this is true or not (and I think it is not true), that figure would be different in bad times to what it was in good times. There is a good argument for saying it is now too high and that we shall emerge from recession more slowly if companies cannot employ people for what they can afford to pay them.
Perhaps we can chip away at the minimum wage by creating more exemptions, for young people, for certain industries etc, and committing ourselves not to increase it. Some politician needs to show the courage to raise the subject. Mr Cameron? I think not.
It has been said that a minimum wage is either useless or dangerous and there is some truth in this. Imagine it were 57.3p per hour (about £23 per week): it would have no effect whatsoever. No one works for that kind of money any more. But imagine it were £57.30 per hour, that is to say it would be illegal to employ anyone for less than £2,300 per week: huge swathes of British industry would be wiped out, millions on the dole.
What proponents of a minimum wage say is that a happy medium can be found which doesn't reduce employment but does help people. Whether this is true or not (and I think it is not true), that figure would be different in bad times to what it was in good times. There is a good argument for saying it is now too high and that we shall emerge from recession more slowly if companies cannot employ people for what they can afford to pay them.
Perhaps we can chip away at the minimum wage by creating more exemptions, for young people, for certain industries etc, and committing ourselves not to increase it. Some politician needs to show the courage to raise the subject. Mr Cameron? I think not.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)