16 January 2014...politicians on all sides line up in agreement with it.
Osborne's support for the minimum wage, joining most LibDem and Labour politicians is playing politics with people's livelihoods. The min wage is the kind of eye catching and simplistic policy that damages most the people who it is supposed to help.
This idiotic policy is locking more and more people into low pay by creating a norm in many industries made worse by the tax credit system which subsidies also low pay.
The only real pay rise comes from increased productivity.
The only real long term and secure jobs come from improved productivity.
The way to better pay issues is to address productivity and the overall prosperity of the nation and that means that the government needs to reduce the burden it places on people and business both in taxation and in rules and red tape.
If the government were really to want to help the low paid then they will not place extra cost burdens on business but instead will align the nil tax band with the equivalent of a full time job at the minimum wage. Taxing someone's pay while saying they should be paid more is simply absurd, as is reducing the availability of jobs by artificially pushing up pay.
Get rid of the minimum wage.
Align the tax band at about £13,000 to what the min wage would be.
Get rid of the damaging and penal higher income tax rates and simplify taxes.
Get rid of the expensive and complex tax credit system.
Curb public spending and that means reducing the role of government in all our lives.
Get government off the back of business.
Then see this country boom as never before, creating those better paid jobs and bringing back the pay ladder through increased job competition. That is how living standards will improve not by copying foolish and counter-productive policies.
tax credits are a different thing, the tax payer is effectively subsidising bad employers - but i don't see these giving wage rises to offset the loss of tax credits.