To think raising NMW is a good thing

Raising minimum wage is always a good thing in principle. In reality, early years and social care are fucking fucked.

Who do you think employs the working class??

The level of stupidity on this thread is quite astounding.

Not every business is coca-cola level, and they aren't the businesses that are going to be hit. Its the local micro/small businesses that are going to go bust 🙄

Why not? They seem to support every other fucker.

But they’re not spending in the local economy. They are buying all their clothes from SHEIN and Temu. Their household stuff from Amazon. They’re not spending it in the indie coffee shop on the posh high street.

I know, it’s very depressing.

Large chains of care homes, maybe. Smaller care homes are often absolutely on their knees and desperately short of extra cash. I don’t know why people think business in this country are all rolling in it

Companies will always employ the fewest people they can get away with.

Then clearly you're lucky enough to have earned above MW.

The difference between NMW and those in skilled work (newly qualified nurses for eg) is closing. My worry is that fewer people will be putting themselves through uni because the pay gap is minimal. Not saying folk don’t deserve more but there is knock on affect.

People are generally paid more for skill but if that gap closes what then?

The naïveté is amazing. Of course it’s easy. You just never turn up to the job you’re offered.

Some people dont think the minimum wage should be enough to live off of. People like bashing people on benefit top ups but also don't want minimum wage to rise.

and if everyone did that?

Society can't function without minimum wage workers.

Care workers are unpaid I get that. Buy the margins are so so small in hospitality and retail.

In retail many companies operate with margins that are razor razor thin. I actually had a look at what their profit margin is after tax. Absolutely tiny. They cannot afford to pay more.

My answer is different for those in professions indirectly linked to government funding (such as carers, teachers, nurses etc)

OMG. You think that the hospitality industry is "absolutely raking it in"???

You are so divorced from reality that there's really no point trying to make you understand.

The debate is not settled though. You appear to be stating outcomes as fact, when they actually are not.

This link has some data. Maybe not the best, but first result, and appears non biased.

Minimum Wage Increases: Do They Create Jobs or Cause Unemployment? - The Money Question

In general, job losses no, but less new low wage jobs coming on the market. If the raise is incremental. Large lumps in minimum wage look to be bad.

The bit that I think matters is item 2 on the link. Increased consumer spending.

Because of course, people on minimum wage are more likely to be living hand to mouth. So any extra they get is much more likely to go straight back into the economy, so the local economy is lifted . The more they have to spend, the more stuff is bought.

And if more stuff is bought, the less shops and businesses have to raise prices to cover their increased wage bill.

I know that last bit sounds a bit like a perpetual motion machine, but when you think about it, it does make sense.

That's my thinking anyway.

Tell that to all the small tradesman who employ young trainees. They'll simply cut back on the jobs that they accept.

Good luck if you need a plumber or electrician.

@Westwardho1 I know generational families not working is a thing more so years ago. However on UC they are strict and you are expected to go to work otherwise you are sanctioned so I dont think that's the issue at all today.

Did you not know that all business owners wear top hats and twiddle their moustaches, while their Savile Row suit stretches across their enormous stomach?!

Which was exactly what they were warned would happen, by anyone with even a rudimentary grasp of business. Yet they stubbornly stick to their mantra and their latest definition of "working people".

There's not a single economic brain among them, just student level ideology.

I deal with companies all the time who barely make a profit as it is. All this talk of millions in profit is not actually the case for an awful lot of businesses. Far from it

You can budget money you haven't got.

It's not only one business who has to pay more NMW and therefore NI contributions. It's every business that supplies them. Those costs get passed along the chain until the end customer. Who increasingly cannot afford them.

And I'm afraid it is eighty years of the welfare state which has created this scenario.

Before anyone leaps down my throat (I won't be interested if they do) think about it for a moment. On what planet is it desirable that someone tokenly fills in applications because it's a requirement by the job centre and then scarpers the moment actual work materialises, because it's easier to just take the benefits than do a day's work? Some families have not worked for several generations.