QUOTE (Simon Kirby @ May 3 2017, 08:03 PM)
For sure, there will always be unscrupulous employers who try to avoid regulation, but that's not an argument not to regulate, just to regulate effectively. The unregulated foreign imports is however an issue, but that's the problem to solve and now that we're unfettered by the EU it's not an impossible thing to impose such tariffs on imports that don't meet our domestic standards, though it would certainly be handy to have some kind of international certification scheme for employee rights and remuneration in the manner of the rainforest alliance for example.
But remember this is about a £10/hour minimum wage, so the impact on producers/suppliers is only the impact that the marginal cost of raising the wages of the staff below that threshold has on the product/service cost, and that's typically going to be quite a small impact. Some market sectors such as agriculture employ a lot of staff on less than £10/hour, but say seasonal pickers have to be paid an extra £3/hour, that's not going to add 11% to the price of the crop as labour is not going to be the only production costs, and by the time the crop is sold in a shop the increase in the harvesting cost is a tiny fraction of the shop price, although the shop also has to add the cost of paying its shelf-stackers the living wage too, but even so the impact of the living wage is likely to be a fraction of a percent, and that's for a product that depends heavily on minimum-wage staff. Take something like buying a new a car when there's almost no one involved in the sale and manufacture supply chain who's on minimum wage and the £10/hour living wage has no impact at all.
But... £10 an hour will just be a starter for "ten". The Unions will strike and want £15 an hour and Corbyn will give in. It will end in tears. Thats the problem when Unions are your paymasters. Anyway its all irrelevant anyway as Corbyn will be out on his ear after the GE. We may even get an electable opposition. You never know.