letter explaining low wages

It can be of little surprise to anyone, let alone a "mystery to the best brains of Threadneedle Street", that unemployment and wages are in decline. When so little regulation exists, enabling employers to pay below the minimum wage whilst over-rewarding at the top, leaving many of the real "wealth creators" to rely on government subsidies to pay their extortionate private rents, when people are driven by government cuts to accept jobs on zero-hours contracts, or when 408,000 more become self-employed, mostly as a last resort, the "uncertainty about why the recovery doesn`t feel like one" diminishes somewhat. Even if the Chancellor has "prodded the Low Pay Commission" into increasing the minimum wage a little, it is still well below the level of a living wage, and as long as that particular commission retains that name, the problem will persist. Two of the first things a Labour government should do is change its title to "Fair Pay Commission" covering the earnings of those at the top of the pay scale as well as at the bottom, and allow trade union representation to sit on it.

 As for the notion expressed by the UK economist at ING Financial Markets that the forthcoming increase to the minimum wage will "be the catalyst for broader wage increases", it must be remembered that such financial expert opinion has always maintained that the "trickle down" effect justifies paying obscene amounts at the top, and that the Laffer curve prevents taxing the rich more.Such nonsense has been not only been de-bunked by Piketty, it has led to the most inequality seen in this country since Victorian times!