Jeremy Corbyn and the minimum wage

[HollowTalk]

First I should say I'm a life-long Labour supporter. I've never voted for anyone else.

Apparently JC is saying he wants to raise the NMW to £10 per hour and he wants to stop the differentiation that exists now due to age.

I think this shows a real lack of understanding of how things work. If a 25 year old is to be paid the same as a 16 year old, who will employ the 16 year old?

Secondly, if the NMW increases suddenly then that's going to have a big impact on prices.

He doesn't seem to understand this. I do think the NMW is too low, btw, but I really disagree with his solution.

I think raising the NMW and putting it into place for everyone will just lead to mass unemployment. Even now a few business owners who I know have said that they no longer take a punt on staff who although aren’t brilliant have the potential to be because they need efficient, reliable staff who are good now because the pay demands it.

I’m not saying I agree but when things are getting tighter from every angle I can see their point of view.

Another ploy for the teenage vote, thoughtless!

@HollowTalk

It works the other way round too. No one want to employ me at mid 40s because they can pay someone much less to do the same job.

Given that age doesn't necessarily confer experience or skill, and the NMW is supposed to be the bare minimum that staff should be paid, I don't think there's really an argument that rates for staff over 18 should be differentiated (under 18s are supposed to be in education, in law even if not in practice, so I would say the lower minimum for them should stay). Businesses are still able to increase pay in line with experience, and if they choose not to will compete with other businesses for the work of experienced staff. That seems fair enough to me.

In terms of the actual rate, this obviously does and should increase but I prefer that this is largely decided independently of government. That being said, the NMW should be high enough to allow a reasonable standard of living, and businesses who cannot pay even the bare minimum for their staff are not really viable in the long term. I'd be in favour of government subsidies for small businesses to assist them in paying an increased NMW as this could be targeted in such a way that large corporations were unable to benefit from.

I remember this argument from being a young woman before the Equal Pay Act. "Well dear, the men have to be paid more because they will have families to keep". Spurious then and now.

Yes hollow I get that but I'm talking about nmw that is the wage that the government has decided is the absolute minimum amount of money that is needed to live and pay your bills in this country so that should be the minimum all adults are getting no matter their age.

If the government decide that a person 25+ needs to be able to survive then why is it ok for a 16 (Scotland) to 25 year old to be expected to survive on less when they have the same the exact same costs of living as the 25+ year old?

Once you start talking about sliding scales due to length of employment or skills then that would be based on a higher wage than the absolutely minimum wage that the law allows an employer to pay someone shouldn't it?

Sorry to be clear.

Anything over minimum wage is not what I'm talking about.

I am saying that yes you should be paying wages based on people's home lives if your talking about minimum wage because that is exactly why minimum wage exists. The government decides it based on exactly that. Anything above that is a bonus and that can be structured however each business etc want to because it's higher than the minimum calculated to live on

Ok I've just taken on a hairdressing Saturday girl (15yrs with permit) paid £4.50ph. If I had to pay 16yr old £10 ph we would do without.
Prices go up whenever I increase wages so I'm sure other businesses would increase prices too. I would be unlikely to employ freshly qualified hairdressers as they don't have the experience needed charge the higher prices we would need to charge to cover their wages

well done him, it will gain labour some voters.