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Originally Posted by arden forester
Sometimes yes sometimes no. I've been a career advisor and seen the inner workings of the system. some people are seen as a commodity. Interesting though when those that thought they wouldn't be on "gardening leave" get a spot of it. They change their tune fairly quickly!
Slave labour? I mean literally that! Those at the bottom - exploited foreign workers - and hotel, restaurant, cleaning, and other types on impossible performance targets. Minimum wage yes. Exploitation no. Simple.
Which would you prefer? A thieving person or someone decently paid. On economics alone it must be better. |
Like all these policies, the minimum wage does not address the hard core of people who won't obey the rules. Knife amnesties and gun amnesties - who doesn't hand their weapons in? Criminals. Knife crime went
up after the last amnesty.
The exploitation you describe is largely unaffected by minimum wage laws. Those exploited foreign workers you describe - they're illegal immigrants outside the system. They can't go to the council and say 'I'm being exploited' because they shouldn't be over here earning in the first place. So quite frankly I have little sympathy for them. There is a system in place for economic migrants. Either go through it, or choose to put yourself outside the system and suffer the consequences. We should not be punishing a majority of businesses because a minority of businesses fail to address worker's rights.
Decent pay does not end theft, create loyalty or boost productivity. We need only to take a look at the public sector to confirm that. The average public sector wage is higher now than the average private sector wage. Public sector wages have risen by at least double the rate of inflation since 1997. A doctor can take home £100,000 a year. The NHS costs us twice what it did 8 years ago. And the result? A drop in productivity, low staff loyalty, high turnover and corruption and graft at all levels.