The Living Wage

[The Spartan]

This has been mentioned in a lot of articles in the last couple of weeks so I'm wondering what the general consensus on here is as I know we have some real geniuses when it comes to the economy and finances etc

Living wage for public servants moves a step closer | Society | The Observer

Of course it's easy for the PS to say yeah we'll adopt it after all it's not as if it's coming out of their pockets.

Would you back the living wage for all? Would it means less subsidising in terms of benefits?

[rootsnall]

That's not a 'living wage' though, it's less than the Daily Mail benefits lady was on even if it was tax free, and the Daily Mail lady was also getting her rent paid and various other freebies.

[minestrone]

A council should be trying to provide as high a service as it can for as low as it can.

It does not and has never been given a mandate to provide better working conditions to its staff.

[Robinho]

Like the minimum wage, forcing high wages on people will result in less jobs for everyone.

As long as it's politically popular though.

[The Spartan]

Thing that worries me is that it'll not only will it attract more immigrants but like you said it'll mean less people are employed in general as the money has to come from somewhere

[SupremeSpod]

Does the living wage include £600 a month nursery fees?

Just asking, like...

[SueEllen]

Like the minimum wage, forcing high wages on people will result in less jobs for everyone.

When the minimum wage was became law it didn't decrease the number of jobs simply because at the time it became law we had come out of the 90's recession and the number of jobs had increased.

What it did do is decrease the difference in wages between someone who was more skilled/experienced doing a lower wage role and someone with no experience. In London for some jobs it actually seemed to decreased the level of London weighting.

In regards to the living wage it makes sense for companies to pay decent wages rather than the tax payer. The majority of the people claiming housing benefit particularly in London are working.

[SueEllen]

Thing that worries me is that it'll not only will it attract more immigrants but like you said it'll mean less people are employed in general as the money has to come from somewhere

Employers have a choice between choosing someone brought up in their own country and an immigrant.

Blaming immigrants because lots of British people don't have a work ethic and British management is often poor is stupid.

[The Spartan]

Employers have a choice between choosing someone brought up in their own country and an immigrant.

Blaming immigrants because lots of British people don't have a work ethic and British management is often poor is stupid.

Ahh now I'm not blaming immigrants as given my experience if I was running a business I would probably hire them due to their work ethic, the difference is like I do here I send a substantial chunk of my money back to the UK so you're in a situation where a lot of money wouldn't be going back into the country (the UK that is)

But immigration controls here are a lot tighter than the UK so the effect here would be very minimal I suppose

[Robinho]

When the minimum wage was became law it didn't decrease the number of jobs simply because at the time it became law we had come out of the 90's recession and the number of jobs had increased.

What it did do is decrease the difference in wages between someone who was more skilled/experienced doing a lower wage role and someone with no experience. In London for some jobs it actually seemed to decreased the level of London weighting.

All things being equal it will reduce jobs (unless it's set above the equilibrium price) though it's normally too subtle to detect against background tides. There is a subtle and steady increase in youth unemployment since the minimum wage turned up though.

In regards to the living wage it makes sense for companies to pay decent wages rather than the tax payer. The majority of the people claiming housing benefit particularly in London are working.

A decent wage is what the market states. It makes no sense to artificially increase wages, and it makes no sense to give people money that they haven't earnt. These things are nice in the short term, but fail in the long term.