Minimum Wage Cut Mean-Spirited & Counter Productive

Cllr John Mulvihill snr has stated “Plans in the Government’s Four Year Plan to cut the minimum wage by 12 per cent is proof positive that the least well off and most vulnerable, are fair game as far as Fianna Fáil are concerned.”

Cutting the minimum wage makes absolutely no sense at any level. The hardship such a cut will cause will be very significant for the tens of thousands of households who rely on minimum-wage employment and will act as a disincentive to work. Just 47,000 people, or 3% of the workforce are earning the minimum wage, so to argue that cutting it will add significantly to our competitiveness, simply does not stand up to scrutiny. We were told that one of the objectives of this Four Year Plan was to make it worthwhile for people to work, rather than to claim jobseekers payments. Lowering the minimum wage in this way will have precisely the opposite effect!

There is certainly some merit in the proposals to reform Registered Employment Agreements (REA’s) or Employment Regulation Orders (ERO’s) in the agricultural, catering, construction and electrical contracting sectors, but slashing the minimum wage is stingy and mean-spirited. In conclusion Cork East labour candidate Cllr John Mulvihill snr “This measure will not reduce the fiscal deficit by one cent, and was inserted into this document as a sop to the IMF who are pushing a neo-liberal orthodoxy that should be anathema to all fair-thinking people. Labour will continue to oppose this miserly proposal, tooth and nail.”