Increase the minimum wage | Josie Pagani

JOSIE PAGANI

STRAIGHT AND TRUE

Increase the minimum wage

If there's one thing this Government has got right from day one, and delivered without bungling anything, it has been the minimum wage.

The thing that gets me is the double standard. I looked up the accounts of a few businesses in low wage sectors. Quite rightly, I haven't found a single news release from business representatives denouncing increases in their profits or CEO pay, saying it will cause inflation and have to be passed on to customers (although I bet it was). Not a single person claimed that this would lead to increased unemployment for CEOs.

I mean no criticism of these businesses, or their profits. The point is that no-one leapt into the media to call for restraint when these figures were released. Why then are the very lowest paid, who have the least power to determine their incomes, subjected to a different standard from the businesses that employ them?

Josie's column on the increase in the minimum wage is here.

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