Quote Originally Posted by Exiletyke View Post
Fear not the Free market will decide
That's exactly right, Zyles.

I agree with the notion of a living wage (if only to end the absurdity of taking tax from companies to give to their employees in in-work benefits) but we do have to bear in mind that if a company has to pay a worker in the UK three times what he has to pay to one in, say, Slovakia he might make the choice to offshore his work. And, of course, there would be no prospects of using tariffs to try to protect against that if we follow the Labour line (insofar as it is possible to say what that is) and stay aligned with the Single Market

Some work can't be offshored of course - catering, hospitality or warehouse work for example, but that type of job tends to be low skilled and low paid. On that point, some people who say that the Minimum Wage had not effect on the UK economy are the same who complain about the growth of ZHCs and the gig economy. Coincidence? Maybe...