it’s about time. The minimum wage was introduced at the bequest of the unions as a form of jobs protection.
Minimum wage and welfare have to be cut hand in hand. I would rather Minimum wage be cut less initially though to encourage people to take up jobs.
Now it’s up to this spineless govt. to take any bold step.
- Cut minimum wages.
- Reduce social welfare.
I am more than happy to contribute my 15% of salary.
Good article. I remember earning £3.00 per hour in the mid-ninties working in a certain fast food chain in Dublin City Centre. I was in college, living at home for free then, and really this was drink and bus pass money; much like the petrol pump attendants refered to by Schiff. I was and still am very shocked at the last 2 increases in the minimun wage. €8.65 seems an inordinate amount for these jobs. There is a cheaper rate for U18’s but how many of them actually work these days other than in apprenticeships which are of course less too.
Interesting too note and compare how supermarket checkout assistants stopped helping with packing bags when the plastic bag levy was introduced. Interesting to note and compare the increase of the automated tills in Tesco and Superquinn.
Problem with increases is that it is very difficult to decrease then. Interesting times.
Of course cutting minimum wage is on the table… theres nobody at the table on minimum wage…gives everyone at the table the opportunity to sound concerned and make tough decisions…
What we are seeing is the reverse of Celtic Tiger policies… Back then, no job was too small to have a dedicated qango, complete with HR, marketing, advertising, its own office, website logo etc… social partners being generous with other peoples money…
Now the game is to be brave and make the tough decisions, so long as they have no personal impact…
Remember the IDA chief lecturing everyone on our unsustainable cost base because were paying ourselves too much… politics.ie/economy/86838-id … ached.html
Tossers.
Anyone at the table currently on the minimum would be unaffected by this change.
What you really need at the table are people who currently unemployed, willing to work for less €8.65 an hour but cannot.
Only could be done if there is an even deeper cut to dole. Say 25% cut to that (or more), 10% cut to min. wage, and 10% cut across the board in all pub. service pay.
It’s a bit hypocritical for some of the best paid people in the country to be lecturing us on the worst paid isn’t it?
These feckers have a galling cheek.
I recently had to see a specialist about a medical problem. I was charged €200 for a single consultation. Thankfully, I have private health insurance that should cover someof of that cost.But, for the poor, that’s a weeks worth of dole or 2/3’s of a weekly minimum wage for cryin’ out loud.
Costs need to come down, but why aren’t our politicians, doctors, judges and the likes taking this tough medicine first?
If you were on the dole you’d have a medical card.
So true. By ignoring market clearing prices for labour, the Unions force some to take 100% pay cut so that others could get a couple of % pay-rise. Try pointing this mechanism out to one of the bearded extremists running the Unions, though. These people have their own reality.
Ah, but then you have to wait in line for the fecker to have a public slot available. Paying private means you have some chance of surviving.
For a colonoscopy the difference is three months for the initial consultation and nine months further for the procedure… a year waiting when you have incipient bowel cancer = death.
Not at all. Usually the best paid people are smart. The worst paid are usually not so smart, so it makes sense for the former to lecture on issues rather than the latter.
Lots of private sector employees have taken 10%, 20% or even 100% pay cuts. Unemployed are expected to take 5%. Now it is expected that the low paid are going to be hit also (what % cut are people looking for in the minimum wage anyway?). What piece of the puzzle is missing here, folks?
Not that I buy into the false public vs private dichotomy, but it is a bit rich for the, well rich, to be proposing savage cuts to all around them, while ignoring the potential for their own contributions.
Terrorists are usually muslim. Muslims usually have beards. People with beards are usually muslim terrorists.
I think you should revisit your, eh, ‘logic’ there Dom. Or are you really telling me our politicians are smarter than the average bear?
Absolutely. I’m not going to pretend the healthcare system here is either cheap or effective.
However the expensive/shitty nature of the health system is itself a product of shitty government policy and incompetent implementation thereof. I have a family member who has a medical card but I have to pay for health insurance anyway because of the poor access to services. The total cost for healthcare I pay each year through this and taxes is significant.
It’s well within the power for the government to fix this but yes at the moment if you’re on the dole or minimum wage than private healthcare is well out of your reach.
Exactly. Fuck them. Let the pain start at the top and work itself down.
Government spinning against public sector workers and people on social welfare, as if they caused this mess, is nauseating. Throw it back in their fat faces.
The proper way to conclude would be: ‘Terrorists are usually bearded Muslims’. Now, obviously the exceptions do exist, hence ‘usually’. Notwithstanding, as a general rule people on higher incomes are much smarter than people on lower incomes and the differences are amplified on the ends of the scale. And yes, I would say politicians are smarter than the ordinary Joe Soap.
You may be guilty of mistaking ‘cunning’ for ‘intelligence’.
I wouldn’t describe Mary Coughlan or Batt O’Keefe or Bev Flynn as intelligent ! But cunning, yes.