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.

It’s not. Sorry but that’s the long and short of it.

Some companies will get round not paying, they always do.

Anyway; our minimum wage is very comparable to that in Germany and other European countries; I honestly think that people in this country have been brainwashed if the don’t think it’s good thing to pay people a reasonable wage for reasonable work.

Wanting to be paid enough to survive?

Yep - more businesses will either go under or just stop

And there will be fewer people willing to risk starting or growing their businesses as the costs and lack of reward make it less and less worth it

Wages should increase of course
but there should be some measures to help encourage businesses to grow along side them

Profits need to be redirected to wages rather than bonuses for directors

Care homes and the like are often absolutely raking it in. They won’t pay their staff more than they have to. Same with hospitality.

I’m no fan of this goverment atm. But you can’t blame the issues we currently have solely on a government that have been in for over a year. This is the mess of the previous goverment in power for many years who took their cake and ate it.

There’s a lot of hate for small businesses on this thread. In a few years all we’ll have is the likes of Amazon and then maybe people will be happy when they have a complete monopoly on the market and prices are ridiculous because there’s no competition.

What do you consider a " living," wage

The way being a landlord has gone, then?

Business should be paying everyone a decent wage instead of giving share holders millions,making massive profits.

it absolutely depends what the business is and what the level of profitability is. Not one size fits all.

I’d say starting at £26k is probably more reasonable than £23!

It started many years ago but this government is just so bad, it makes everything that came before it look amazing.

£20 a week would add £2.40 into my pocket, weekly shopping bill is approx £100 so I could increase that to 102.40 however inflation is predicted to be 3.5% increasing my shopping bill to 103.50 so I need to find an extra 1.10 from somewhere, it won't be extra hours at work because none will be available.

Precisely this. People here seem to have no idea how much the salary of company directors is rising and the level of inequality is widening

This is exactly the issue

I cant see it helping anything. If staffing costs rise then the price of what the company provides rises. So you earn more but everything costs more too.

The other issue is if those in the lowest paid jobs get a rise then does everyone else? If not you end up with managers earning very close to those they are managing and therefore they don’t want to do it.

It’s a catch 22.

My teens have, or rather had, cafe/waiting/fast food type PT jobs. They’ve all had their hours much reduced or stopped completely since the last budget as they’re too expensive to employ now. Unintended consequences but thats been the reality for us…

I suspect in other industries they just outsource to cheaper parts of the world as well

Well, quite. That's why all our clothes, most of our goods and customer service is based elsewhere.

At some point British business isn't viable.

How many people go to e.g. a local craft market, see the cost of a handmade ceramic, local produce, high welfare meat or whatever and put it down because they can "get it cheaper" somewhere else.

Where are these people going to work? There's only so many jobs at Tesco.

what are you on about? You don’t value the employment laws to protect you? the freeze in rail fares? What did the last government do for you?

It actually doesn’t have to; but often companies are greedy and want to protect margin and their shareholder profits

If a manufacturer employs someone to make a product/s, and pays them X wage and sells the product for Y price.
If X goes up, then so does Y, basic economics

The reality is it doesn’t end up making a difference. A shop has to pay staff 50p an hour more so the price of shopping rises by 50p, a restaurant has to pay 50p more so the menu becomes 50p more expensive etc etc- the pay rise then isn’t actually worth anything at all. It’s a nice idea, but businesses don’t absorb these costs they just pass them on to the consumer and so you’re never any better off.