In his regular blog for Caerphilly Observer South Wales East AM Lindsay Whittle gives his take on recent news.
UK General Election
The election campaign for May 7 is well under way. We’ve had one televised leaders’ debate already in which Plaid Cymru leader, Leanne Wood, stood up for Wales and took on Labour over their record in Wales, as well as Ukip’s leader.
The message that I have found resonates best with people in Caerphilly when campaigning with Plaid’s candidate Beci Newton is our opposition to continued austerity. And if the Party of Wales has any influence in an expected hung parliament the message the Labour leadership will be getting is that austerity must end.
If plans go unchanged, the Tories and Labour will impose varying degrees of multi-billion cuts on public services over the next five years of a new Parliament.
But the message I’m hearing on the doorstep is that people want hope of a better life and their public services protected and not more cuts.
There have been significant cuts already but the worse is still to come under the Westminster parties. It is the poorest in the society who have borne the brunt so far– and not the bankers who caused the crisis – and you can bet they will be targeted again.
I’m appalled that in the 21st Century many vulnerable families and individuals are having to turn to food banks. That should not be happening in one of the richest countries in the world. We must raise people’s living standards – from the minimum wage to the living wage of £7.85 an hour – so people do not have to turn to food banks to feed themselves.
I’m looking forward to the next UK televised offering on Thursday of next week when the opposition leaders’ debate and then the Welsh debates will follow.
Penyrheol by-election
I wanted to offer my congratulations to Carl Coombes who won a vacant seat on Penyrheol, Trecenydd and Energlyn Community Council following a by-election last week caused by the passing of Labour councillor Reg Phillips.
Carl won by more than 100 votes in a three-cornered fight with Labour, which was defending the seat, and Ukip. I know that Carl will work very hard for people in the area.
I would really like somebody who keeps harping on about this fictional living wage to explain to me how exactly this would be implemented. I work for a company who pay me the minimum wage of £6.50, which equates to roughly £13,500 per year. I do a low skilled job, if overnight my company was forced to pay me £7.85 per hour this would be roughly £16,300 per year about a 20% pay increase. This would be a rather nice pay rise but it would take my pay above the level of my line manager, so my line manger would also have to be given a 20% pay rise to compensate for this, which would take his salary above the level of his manager – and so it would go on all the way up the chain. Can the company who I work for afford to give every employee a 20% pay rise overnight? well a big fat NO is the answer to that one. So what would my company do if this magical £7.85 minimum wage was forced upon them, well I’d just lose my job along with many others. So Mr Lindsay Whittle and all those who keep banging on about this wonderful figure of £7.85 per hour please get real, climb out of your public sector bubble and go visit a few real businesses who unlike the local council have to turn a profit in order to pay its workers and see what life is like in the real world where I live and work.
I would really like somebody who keeps harping on about this fictional living wage to explain to me how exactly this would be implemented. I work for a company who pay me the minimum wage of £6.50, which equates to roughly £13,500 per year. I do a low skilled job, if overnight my company were forced to pay me £7.85 per hour this would be roughly £16,300 per year about a 20% pay increase. This would be a rather nice pay rise but it would take my pay above the level of my line manager, so my line manger would also have to be given a 20% pay rise to compensate for this, which would take his salary above the level of his manager – and so it would go on all the way up the chain. Can the company who I work for afford to give every employee a 20% pay rise overnight? well a big fat NO is the answer to that one. So what would my company do if this magical £7.85 minimum wage was forced upon them, well I’d just lose my job along with many others. So Mr Lindsay Whittle and all those who keep banging on about this wonderful figure of £7.85 per hour please get real, climb out of your public sector bubble and go visit a few real businesses who unlike the local council have to turn a profit in order to pay its workers and see what life is like in the real world where I live and work.
“We must raise people’s living standards” I agree entirely but
this cannot be achieved unless we leave the EU. The totally unrestricted EU
jobs market that allows a migrant from a poorer European country to come to
Wales and offer his or her labour for less than a Welsh person is a direct
cause of low pay. The modern term for this is “wage compression.”
There are many examples but I select one, the retail trade. Following the
Sunday Trading Act of 1994 many more shops opened on a Sunday. The directors of large retail companies stated then that nobody would be compelled to work Sunday and those who did would be paid, the then standard in Britain, double time. This is no longer the case, a job applicant must be prepared to not only work Sunday but Bank holidays without any extra pay whatsoever. If they decline this offer the shop employs foreign workers instead. If anyone does not believe me then I invite them to try the employment sections of any large retailer and ask for terms and conditions.
I am amazed that parties such as Plaid Cymru andLabour, so called socialists, are so much in favour of this EU experiment that
as deprived the poorest paid in society of the dignity of selling their labour
at what in the 1980’s was the “going rate” and prefer to spend our
tax payers money by allowing a foreign worker to take a low paid job and also
pay them benefits such as tax credits and family allowance. The “Living
wage” argument is laughable for those at the sharp end of our low wage
economy. Plaid and Labour are, by their unequivocal support of the EU super
state, in the pocket of big business. The Tories are too but at least they are
more honest about it and do offer and referendum on membership of the EU at
some point. Labour, Plaid and Lib Dems do not trust the people and will not
offer a referendum. Think very carefully before voting in the general election,
the result of this one could haunt you for much longer than a five year
parliament.
“We must raise people’s living standards” I agree entirely but
this cannot be achieved unless we leave the EU. The totally unrestricted EU
jobs market that allows a migrant from a poorer European country to come to
Wales and offer his or her labour for less than a Welsh person is a direct
cause of low pay. The modern term for this is “wage compression.”
There are many examples but I select one, the retail trade. Following the
Sunday Trading Act of 1994 many more shops opened on a Sunday. The directors of large retail companies stated then that nobody would be compelled to work Sunday and those who did would be paid, the then standard in Britain, double time. This is no longer the case, a job applicant must be prepared to not only work Sunday but Bank holidays without any extra pay whatsoever. If they decline this offer the shop employs foreign workers instead. If anyone does not believe me then I invite them to try the employment sections of any large retailer and ask for terms and conditions.
I am amazed that parties such as Plaid Cymru andLabour, so called socialists, are so much in favour of this EU experiment that
as deprived the poorest paid in society of the dignity of selling their labour
at what in the 1980’s was the “going rate” and prefer to spend our
tax payers money by allowing a foreign worker to take a low paid job and also
pay them benefits such as tax credits and family allowance. The “Living
wage” argument is laughable for those at the sharp end of our low wage
economy. Plaid and Labour are, by their unequivocal support of the EU super
state, in the pocket of big business. The Tories are too but at least they are
more honest about it and do offer and referendum on membership of the EU at
some point. Labour, Plaid and Lib Dems do not trust the people and will not
offer a referendum. Think very carefully before voting in the general election,
the result of this one could haunt you for much longer than a five year
parliament.
I think the living wage should not just be an aspiration but should be a legal `right`.
Paul states the case, supposedly, as a worker living on the minimum wage, for his employers inability to sustain his or her business if they had to pay a `living wage` to their lowest paid workers. Well, this has to be first?
The fact is that anyone living, and maintaining a family and a home, on the minimum wage would have enough struggles in their lives not to be too concerned with their employer being legislated to having to better share the companies profits with the people who generate that wealth, I am very surprised that anyone who survives on subsistence level recompense in exchange for a days labour can even contemplate building any sort of case for maintaining that position.
Yes Trefor it’s all very well you saying that the magical £7.85 living wage should be a legal right but could you please explain exactly how it could possibly by implemented into a private company that has an existing pay grade structure such as mine, and many other private businesses both small and large up and down the country, job losses would be inevitable and I would much rather work for £6.50 per hour than not work at all, going to a place of work gives a person much more than just money in their pocket, their is more to life than money, although like you so rightly point out being paid a better wage would make life easier and give a person more chioces rather than eat or pay that huge council tax bill. It is not the fault of my company that I only pick up a relatively small wage, it is entirely the fault of my own. Like Cllr Richard Williams states it is econmic migrants that have forced down the level of pay by doing the jobs for less than the indigenous population are prepared to do, for many years far too many British job seekers believed that low paid work was beneath them, with some wrongly being paid more in benefits to sit on the dole, which has allowed foreign workers to happily come in and do the jobs that they are not prepared to do, now sadly the damage has been done and it can not be reversed.
Your argument about the poor employer who would make people unemployed rather than pay the living wage to its own micro wealth creating employees holds water if that employers balance sheets are Profit Neutral.
However, not many companies survive for very long in such circumstances, I would prefer to think that most Companies
are sharing in the Tory Lib Dem financial revival after the Country was brought to its knees by their sycophantic International and nationalbanker, backers. If they, (including your employer?), are not seeing his financial and manufacturing resurgence, and, the household finances
of ordinary working families are not seeing this mysterious “promised Land” effect of the last five years of Tory Austerity Policies, including the fleecing of the Disabled, old and dispossed, Who is????????????????? You nore
your employers are benefiting according to you, if you believe Cameron Clegg and the rest of their backslapping proppers, someone must be feeling the effect of their `successes? Surely?.
The harsh truth is the minimum wage being increased to £7.85, or £8.00 as Labour have promised leads to job losses, poverty, and inflation. The living wage is a poisoned chalice. For example:
Companies employ some people at a wage just above the national minimum for the menial jobs such as cleaning. With a requirement to increase the wages of their workers by up to 20% and the knock on effects it would have, they will either increase their prices to counter the increase in costs leading to demands of an higher minimum wage, or the companies will make their part-time workers redundant. Reports by the Institute of Economic Affairs reveal a 10% increase in the minimum wage leads to a 2.5% decrease in employment.
The youth and the elderly will be the first group of people to be made redundant. The living wage nonsense is great if you are one of the workers paid the wage, but terrible if you are one of the workers who is made redundant.
http://www.iea.org.uk/blog/unemployment-and-the-minimum-wage
http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/Briefing%20-%20Minimum%20Wage.pdf
Same old argument that increased minimum wage legislation leads to redundancies, it did`nt happen on the introduction of the minimum wage, it has`nt happened on each increase since and will not happen when Labour`s pledge on the living wage comes into effect.
And with the abolition of zero hours contracts into proper contractual hours employment, the proper regulation and protection of hard working part-time workings and the re-introducing of proper employee rights and protection, the Countries Welfare Benefits Bill will reduce, in the resultant savings in employment related `top up` welfare payments, Which, are currently paid for from other tax payers contributions. tax and national insurance receipts will increase, and then the `employee classes` will earn a living wage, they will each make a significant contribution to balancing the nations books. A proper redistribution of wealth.
I think the living wage should not just be an aspiration but should be a legal `right`.
Paul states the case, supposedly, as a worker living on the minimum wage, for his employers inability to sustain his or her business if they had to pay a `living wage` to their lowest paid workers. Well, this has to be first?
The fact is that anyone living, and maintaining a family and a home, on the minimum wage would have enough struggles in their lives not to be too concerned with their employer being legislated to having to better share the companies profits with the people who generate that wealth, I am very surprised that anyone who survives on subsistence level recompense in exchange for a days labour can even contemplate building any sort of case for maintaining that position.
Yes Trefor it’s all very well you saying that the magical £7.85 living wage should be a legal right but could you please explain exactly how it could possibly by implemented into a private company that has an existing pay grade structure such as mine, and many other private businesses both small and large up and down the country, job losses would be inevitable and I would much rather work for £6.50 per hour than not work at all, going to a place of work gives a person much more than just money in their pocket, their is more to life than money, although like you so rightly point out being paid a better wage would make life easier and give a person more chioces rather than eat or pay that huge council tax bill. It is not the fault of my company that I only pick up a relatively small wage, it is entirely the fault of my own. Like Cllr Richard Williams states it is econmic migrants that have forced down the level of pay by doing the jobs for less than the indigenous population are prepared to do, for many years far too many British job seekers believed that low paid work was beneath them, with some wrongly being paid more in benefits to sit on the dole, which has allowed foreign workers to happily come in and do the jobs that they are not prepared to do, now sadly the damage has been done and it can not be reversed.
Your argument about the poor employer who would make people unemployed rather than pay the living wage to its own micro wealth creating employees holds water if that employers balance sheets are Profit Neutral.
However, not many companies survive for very long in such circumstances, I would prefer to think that most Companies
are sharing in the Tory Lib Dem financial revival after the Country was brought to its knees by their sycophantic International and national banker, backers. If they, (including your employer?), are not seeing his financial and manufacturing resurgence, and, the household finances
of ordinary working families are not seeing this mysterious “promised Land” effect of the last five years of Tory Austerity Policies, including the fleecing of the Disabled, old and dispossed, Who is????????????????? You nore
your employers are benefiting according to you, if you believe Cameron Clegg and the rest of their backslapping proppers, someone must be feeling the effect of their `successes? Surely?.
The harsh truth is the minimum wage being increased to £7.85, or £8.00 as Labour have promised leads to job losses, poverty, and inflation. The living wage is a poisoned chalice. For example:
Companies employ some people at a wage just above the national minimum for the menial jobs such as cleaning. With a requirement to increase the wages of their workers by up to 20% and the knock on effects it would have, they will either increase their prices to counter the increase in costs leading to demands of an higher minimum wage, or the companies will make their part-time workers redundant. Reports by the Institute of Economic Affairs reveal a 10% increase in the minimum wage leads to a 2.5% decrease in employment.
The youth and the elderly will be the first group of people to be made redundant. The living wage nonsense is great if you are one of the workers paid the wage, but terrible if you are one of the workers who is made redundant.
http://www.iea.org.uk/blog/unemployment-and-the-minimum-wage
http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/Briefing%20-%20Minimum%20Wage.pdf
Same old argument that increased minimum wage legislation leads to redundancies, it did`nt happen on the introduction of the minimum wage, it has`nt happened on each increase since and will not happen when Labour`s pledge on the living wage comes into effect.
And with the abolition of zero hours contracts into proper contractual hours employment, the proper regulation and protection of hard working part-time workers and the re-introducing of proper employee rights and protection, the Country`s Welfare Benefits Bill will reduce, in the resultant savings in employment related `top up` welfare payments, Which, are currently paid for from other tax payers contributions. tax and national insurance receipts will increase, and then the `employee classes` will earn a living wage, they will each make a significant contribution to balancing the nations books. A proper redistribution of wealth.
Raising the minimum wage with open borders will be like throwing more bait to catch more fish. They will swim from all over the pond to chow down.
Raising the minimum wage with open borders will be like throwing more bait to catch more fish. They will swim from all over the pond to chow down.