To think raising NMW is a good thing

[Kilot]

The poorest in society will earn more. Companies will have to pay more, benefits will drop.

Companies will employ fewer people…

We will get fewer hours per week. We will also pay more for things

Prices of goods and services will rise to pay for the rise in NMW - so in real terms it makes shit all difference to those earning NMW and squeezes the middle even more.

WOO!

God forbid those of us on low wages earn a somewhat liveable amount!

Companies will employ less people. Small businesses that may have taken on an employee won't. Those lucky enough to have a secure minimum wage job will earn more. Lots of others will not have a job because of it. Companies will have to pay their staff more so will increase prices which will affect everybody. So no it's not that great actually.

Bollocks. Utter bollocks. If your business isn’t making enough to pay a liveable wage, it’s not a sustainable business

if a company's business model is based on paying poor wages to make it profitable, it strikes me that it's a very bad business model.

Trouble is the cost of everything else will go up to pay for it and no one gets any better off

100%
I manage a team, suppose to be 7 of them
There is currently 3. Which leaves me having to step up and do a job I wasn't employed for
"No money left in the budget for more staff" is their answer.

The minimum wage was raised already last year. And unemployment, especially youth unemployment has gone up. Wages can’t be raised in a vacuum. They have to underpinned by higher productivity and economic growth. Both of which have been killed stone dead by this government.

So the poor in society can’t earn more in jobs that don’t exist.

I believe that national minimum wage has been increased 19 times since 2000
Which is not very often really

You obviously don’t fully understand how this is going to work. Businesses can’t afford it, so they either won’t employ anyone to start with, or will not replace when people leave, or worse case go bust and no one wins

That’s on the business owners who won’t cut the profits they take home…

I bet there’s plenty of money for the shareholders, though

It isn't really that simple. In a dream world yes, companies would just pay more, but realistically what will happen is they will cut staff to a minimum and reduce hours. It's already happening.

I haven’t had 19 pay rises since 2000.

This will place more pressure on employers who were hammered last year with the NI rises. Tax thresholds are being frozen til 2030 so as wages go up more people will pay tax. Giving with one hand and taking with the other. Small business who cant afford it will let people go, cut hours or pay cash in hand.

And who benefits from these businesses collapsing?

So instead workers (and the government) should prop up businesses who can’t afford to pay their workers? We should all be cutting back further and further, and paying more in benefits to top up wages, to allow businesses to underpay staff,

If employers can’t afford to pay a decent wage then they are not a viable business

our reliance on low paid foreign labour ( everything you buy that was made in China for example ) means a lot of our businesses are not viable because we are in a world that is driving down the value of labour

Yes that’s how ownership works.

Do you give your income away for free. Why do you expect shareholders to do that.

More to the point, do you have a workplace pension or private pension? Are you paying into it without expecting a return?

As a former shopkeeper, I would have been thrilled if my takings had gone up when the minimum wage was raised.
Instead I had to absorb it

Unfortunately UC also raises the AET of how much you need to earn before having no work commitments every time they raise the MW. This means less UC etc so you aren't better off.

Almost every year, so quite often?

YANBU
If you've got a business, pay your staff properly.