What's your view ? :
There is "scant evidence" the national living wage can alleviate poverty, the Institute of Economic Affairs claims.
The national living wage should be scrapped along with plans to curb bosses' earnings, a think-tank has said. The Institute of Economic Affairs says the Government should abandon its plan to increase the national living wage to more than £9 per hour by 2020. The pro-free market organisation also says there is "little evidence the gender pay gap results from discrimination," and is calling on the Government to scrap the planned publication of "crude league tables."
The report comes after Prime Minister Theresa May set out plans for tougher corporate governance amid concern over events at companies such as BHS and Sports Direct. Mrs May's new Government has already shied away from one potential flashpoint with big business by watering down plans to tacke obesity this week.
The national living wage was introduced by the former chancellor George Osborne in April 2016, at a rate of £7.20 per hour for people over the age of 25.
The IEA report suggests "there is scant evidence that the national living wage is an effective tool to alleviate poverty." It is also warning that the wage could threaten jobs as many firms will look to make cuts in order to budget for the planned increment in pay. "Price controls in wage setting have severe negative consequences," said the report author and head of IEA public policy, Ryan Bourne.
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Also leaving lots of small business in the situation that they are forced to cut hours/benefits to make the numbers work.
A friend of mine has just closed one of his shops because the numbers won't stand paying people more than the £8.00 an hour he pays now.
His lease was up for renewal and he did not want to risk it on that particular shop.
I come from an age when there was no minimum wage. Most years we would take a school leaver at about 16 years old. To them any money was good money and to us we could afford to pay someone who knew absolutely nothing and had to be taught just to sweep and tidy up. Some would fall by the wayside, but within a few of weeks the stayers would be up and running, earning their corn. I suppose in the 80's and 90's we had 10 or so come and go. ALL went on have careers in various jobs and what did they learn from us? To get their backsides out of bed, punctuality and hard work.
Two years college, tacked onto Secondary school has changed things now and I am not sure if it is for the better for a lot of kids.
Drives me mad Billybop! I could still give kids a foot on the ladder, but heads have been turned by the 'you can be what you want to be' era, but £100PW is still a lot of money to someone used to earning nothing.
I think the living wage is a bit of a scam by the government, so they do not have to pay as much benefits and also get a bit of income tax
I wouldn't call it a 'scam' David, but you are absolutely right. It's about encouraging people to work, rather than sitting at home, which has to be right. Employers pick up the bill, rather than the tax payer........although they do eventually through increased prices! It's a funny old world!
I don't know what you pay people in your area, but in the area we operate in the going rate for unqualified labour is between £8 & £9 per hour, and and most of the time they are looking at their phones.
So we are in the process of devising a pay by performance (PRP = Performance Related Pay) scheme where we would pay a very basic hourly rate plus a bonus for the amount of work completed to the customers satisfaction. This way their brain cells might concentrate on getting the work completed so they earn more money, rather than walking around like zombies.
I know that in the USA there is a big move towards this type of payment system as it makes firms more efficient and profitable. We are hoping to have this sort of scheme ready for next year.
Ah ... a US concept .....
For how many employees would that be for - has Lance taken on staff recently ?
How would this work when the Living Wage rises ?
It simply exports work abroad where rates are cheaper unless our exchange rate collapses.
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