First published: Prospectmagazine.co.uk, 3/11/2015
It’s a fantasy to assume that the living wage is somehow going to be a poverty breaking panacea
The answer to the question “should people on low pay be paid more?” is rhetorical, and ranks with questions such as should we pay more attention to the environment? Or should doctors and nurses be paid more than finance professionals and footballers? Questions about low pay are platitudes, which while important, mask complex issues that make for dangerous topics in the hands of vested interests on both the Left and Right of the political spectrum. And this is precisely what has happened to the now lively debate going on about the living wage….Read more: