The Minimum Wage Refuted By A Mug

The Minimum Wage Refuted By A Mug

Hi guys. And gals.

My name is Alexander Baron, and one of the websites I run is called FinancialReform; the link is given below.

https://www.financialreform.info/

In this short video I am going to refute the nonsense of the minimum wage. Probably the vast majority of those who advocate the implication of a minimum wage – and now in the UK the so-called living wage – have nothing but noble intentions, after all, shouldn’t everyone be entitled to a decent standard of living?

The Labour Party is currently arguing for a minimum wage of £8.00 per hour. That does not sound excessive, especially when you realise that an off-peak travel card in the capital will cost you more than that. Let’s take a closer look though. This is a mug of coffee. Actually, although I do like coffee, I don’t drink a lot of it, I am a great tea drinker, but that is neither here nor there, because this mug is empty. This mug is also red, nothing else in this video is.

Having said that, a coffee in my local caff will set you back £1. Even though there is a massive mark up on tea and coffee, that price is not unreasonable; premises of this nature don’t make vast profits on food, they also have serious overheads including rates and taxes to pay.

Now, let us suppose that the owner decides to employ an extra member of staff to clear and clean the tables, to wash up, and to do a bit of general handiwork, how many cups of coffee will he need to sell in an hour – every hour – in order to afford to pay this new staff member the minimum wage?

Probably 9 or 10, that is not just one hour but every hour. The caff in question opens early morning and closes late afternoon; it is open seven days a week, but let’s not consider enhanced rates for overtime. I don’t use it a lot, but there appears to be a bit of a morning rush, heavy lunch time useage, and for the rest of the time, well, it isn’t crowded. Someone working an eight hour shift clearing tables, etc, that’s 90 or so cups of coffee just to pay him. Then there is the cook, okay a cook in your local greasy spoon is not Gordon Ramsay, but this is not an unskilled job. And how about the owner? Whether or not he helps out with the cooking, he deserves to make a decent living.

Do the math with regard to your own local caff, and you’ll see what I mean.

There are all manner of unskilled jobs out there that do not warrant the minimum wage, but small business people are portrayed as capitalist parasites for acknowledging this fact. There are it is true many businesses that are not unhappy with minimum wage laws. Anyone who works in a doctor’s surgery, a legal practice or an accountancy firm is unlikely to be too bothered with them. Big companies, including supermarkets that em ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhvOH3xMKKQ