Minimum wage rise ‘no effect on poverty’

Increasing the minimum wage would have little impact on household poverty, the Economic and Social Research Institute claims.

Its latest research, entitled Low Pay, Minimum Wages and Household Incomes: Evidence for Ireland finds that workers on low hourly pay are often found in households with incomes close to the average.

“In a majority of cases, low-paid employees are not the sole earners in the household,” it said. “Even when low-paid workers are the sole earners, fewer than one in five of them fall below the EU’s ‘at risk of poverty’ threshold. These findings reflect patterns which are common across countries and persistent over time.”