£10 Minimum Wage

How do you suggest people start business then?

unicorn why the hell do you bother then.

So if the profits are that low in companies that they can't afford to pay each employee a couple of quid more an hour, then I think they should give it up, it's not a viable business.

Yes we barely break even most months. Not sure how we'll cope with the increase in wages. Especially as it's forced. What it generally means is that the newer inexperienced staff end up on the same pay as the long term staff.
We would like to be able to offer pay rises to everyone fairly as and when they deserve it but this is taking that option away.
We just do not have the funds.
In an ideal world (in my own opinion), new starters would have lower wages and then get a yearly payrise on review.
The problem is lots of big companies, that can afford to pay more, take advantage of the minimum wage by only ever paying that, and they ruin it for everyone.
Of course everyone should be paid fairly, but I can see a lot of people deciding not to get into skilled work as they pay gap between skilled and unskilled will be too small

Light is not as simple is it? Cash is king, you need profits to put aside as a safety net for a bad month or lack of confidence in the market so you can still pay wages when there is less work rather than lay people off. We need smaller company's to be able to make good profit margins to keep their staff through lean times. Some smaller business may we'll be buggered by it.

Right small businesses out there, what are you profits, are you willing to say what your profits are now and what they'd be if £10 mw came in.

I don't want to get jumped on as Labour bashing as I'm not. This is purely an anecdote but left me frustrated after talking to a Labour rep.

I expressed my concerns about the raising of corporation tax. As a company we follow the genuine Living Wage as our base rate and at it regardless of age etc.

If the company is struggling the only people facing a pay cut are directors and management.

His solution was we pay our staff less as £10 per hour is perfectly acceptable as a wage and then we can pay more in corporation tax. As benefits will top up anything else.

As a responsible employer that's left me somewhat disillusioned

Tough shit, the workers at the bottom have took this crap for far too long.

What business is going to take a cut in profits though Light?
For small businesses this could put them out of business, for larger businesses their shareholders would be affected and likely take their money elsewhere.

Rufus yes that's correct. They're aiming for 60% of the average wage as minimum wage which is expected to be £9ph by 2020. So all the fuss is about a £1 difference.

I'm not sure why people keep using low earners as the scapegoat. Look towards the cutting of profits.

Its my understanding that the tories want to raise it to £9

If thats the case surely thats going to have the same sort of effect

I have to be honest... I'm worried that constantly raising the minimum wage is just going to raise inflation & bearing in mind public sector wages have not risen by more than 1% in ages it's not going to be long until there is going to be a negligible gap between trained professionals such as teachers and nurses and entry level positions.

I don't really understand (although I'm sure others more educated can explain) why they don't look at ways of bringing the cost of living down instead??

Don't worry, Labour have as much chance of winning the GE as I have of winning the lottery and since I don't buy a ticket that's nil