Minimum Wage Under Attack Again

A graph of the UK's National Minimum Wage over...Image via Wikipedia

Can't say I have much good to say about the Labour Party but the introduction of the minimum wage is certainly to be applauded, even if it is way too low. But true to form the Tories are seeking to smash it under the guise of helping people to get employed with the introduction of the Employment Opportunities bill. This wonderful bill wants to provide employers with the ability to duck out of the minimum wage if the prospective employee agrees. Perhaps a more apt title would be the Employer Opportunity To Pay Crap Wages. Surprised there's not a clause in there making forelock tugging before the master compulsory.

The Employment Opportunities Bill was pulled at the last minute in May but has been rescheduled for a reading at the House of Commons on June 12th. The upstanding members below are the guilty group sponsoring the bill.

Christopher Chope (Christchurch) chopec@parliament.uk
Peter Bone (Wellingborough, Northants) bonep@parliament.uk
Philip Davies (Shipley, West Yorkshire) daviesp@parliament.uk
Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley, Wales) evansn@parliament.uk
Greg Knight (Yorkshire East) knightg@parliament.uk
Edward Leigh (Gainsborough, Lincolnshire) leighe@parliament.uk
Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater, Somerset) liddelli@parliament.uk
Brian Binley (Northampton South, Northants) binleyb@parliament.uk
William Cash (Stone, Staffs) cashw@parliament.uk
Robert Syms (Poole, Dorset) symsr@parliament.uk
David Wilshire (Spelthorne, Surrey) wilshired@parliament.uk

How they can sleep at night I really don't know. Let's hope this bill gets shown the door by whatever integrity may remain in Parliament. And the shower above.




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Comments

  1. It would be nice to see if they could survive on the minimum wage themselves before they try and abolish it...

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  2. I wonder if anyone's ever asked them that Charlie?

    How I wish we could get MPs being paid the average wage. It would cleanse the commons of this lot at a stroke.

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  3. I agree Chris H. Dave Nellist took the average wage of a worker in his constituency - which in the mid 1980s worked out to about 40% of the parliamentary salary. Sadly he is not an MP anymore after being expelled from Labour - but he is a Socialist Party councillor in Coventry.

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  4. I remember the expulsions well Lee, how the media portrayed it as a victory for Labour when in fact it highlighted the beginning of the decline in Labour as a representative party. The integrity of those MPs like Dave Nellist who took average wages has always stuck with me. I think it should be a key concept for any parliament. Those who legislate must be made to share the pain and the gain that they impose on others, they mustn't be allowed to become remote from the electorate.

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