Letter to The Independent

A company kept afloat by paying the minimum wage is either making an unjustifiable profit or is commercially unviable. It should not expect parents, guardians or grandparents to augment the company’s wage bill. (R.J. Rickard, Edinburgh).

Low wages paid by hamburger and pizza suppliers (and similar) mean that the taxpayer has to subsidize poor workers everywhere in the civilised world. People inclined to right-wing politics should be incensed by this. Why should we be asked to supplement the measly wages workers to ensure that they eat? The writer is right – if these cheese-paring (no pun intended) companies, from Walmart downward, have such poor business viability then they should be wound up. To make matters worse, many of these companies that have risen on the backs of taxpayers have presences in other countries, where they pay no tax.

Epicurus would be in no doubt – put them mercifully to sleep. They are conning the public. There is a point where non-jobs are no jobs.