Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps I do not have well-off friends like Deputy McGrath but for a large number of workers in the low-paid sector it has reached a point where people with jobs are suffering deprivation. The Minister states that the Government increased the minimum wage, and it was good that this happened, but the minimum wage is too low for people to have a decent standard of living in this dear country. Some interesting research carried out in America showed that the low wages paid by the likes of McDonalds and Walmart have led to the taxpayer subsidising their wages indirectly in order for them to survive. If we carried out the same research here, would we find that the State is supplementing low wages that the private sector to some of these workers?

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