Tuesday 16 April 2013

Taxpayers Subsidising The Private Sector

A few times on this blog i have advocated the idea of a flat wage so everyone is paid the same with the most obvious advantage that people would be attracted to the job rather than the salary so you would get workers who actually want to be in those positions rather than someone who couldn't care less but just want the money.
While i still think it is a great idea (many disagree though) there is large swathes of workers who do earn the same wage regardless of the job they do, those on the minimum wage.
Not one to give much credit to the Conservative Government, they should be clapped heartily on the back for today raising the minimum wage by 12p to £6.31 despite the usual protests from the business sector who try the same boring blackmail tricks of threatening redundancies and the non-hiring of further workforce.
The same wailings that were used for years before Tony Blair came along and forced it upon them anyway and after a bit of pouting and sticking out of their bottom lip, they reluctantly accepted it.
What the Government must also take credit for is fostering an air of anger against those who don't work, including the disabled, for what it costs us taxpayers to keep handing them £53 per week to live on but something never mentioned are the subsidies we pay so the same business people can get away with underpaying their employees without hurting their profits.
In the real world, a minimum wage earner working a full 40 hour week will earn around £200 per week once the Government take their slice of National Insurance and once the occupational pension contribution is removed there is very little left after after the bills are paid and the food is bought which is why the Government top up low wages with 'Tax Credits' to the tune of £35 billion.
That's £35 billion coming out of our taxes and being handed to the private sector because employers are not paying enough wages for their employees to live on.
The cost to the UK of paying disability benefit was an estimated £10 billion last year, a third of the cost of subsiding the private sector but it is the disabled that are vilified and painted as scroungers.
For some reason, this £35 billion is never mentioned when the austerity measure are wheeled out when all the Government has to do is raise the minimum wage by a few pound rather than a few pence and the Government coffers are billions of pounds heavier and we, the taxpayers, are not subsiding the companies who abuse their position while racking up billions of their own in profits knowing that the Government will not leave their employees to starve or freeze to death.

No comments: