Work must be made to pay - The minimum wage

It is not difficult to agree with minister of state Ged Nash, who said yesterday that, when economic conditions allow, the minimum wage should be progressively increased. 

Of course that caveat “when economic conditions allow” falls into the how-long-is-a-piece-of-string category of evasion and will make little difference to most poorly-paid workers in the immediate future.

It is entirely appropriate that this issue be put back on the agenda as workers on the minimum wage face a daily struggle. They are denied the dignity that should confer or even the modest comforts of a living wage. This situation is exacerbated by some profitable companies paying full-time workers so little that their workers must rely on our social protection system — in effect we are subsidising profits for companies that pay their workers very poorly.

In that context, the warning from Ictu general secretary David Begg, that the proposed EU-US trade deal could allow American multinationals to sue a future government for loss of profits if it raised the minimum wage must be taken very seriously. Such a situation would strike at the very heart of the social contract that has sustained Europe for the last half- century. It would also show that the unfettered, predatory capitalism remains indifferent to the idea of social justice despite the carnage it brought to millions upon millions of people around the world over the last decade.