Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Low Pay and the Living Wage: Discussion
1:30 pm
Mr. Mark Fielding:
-----because of the confusion over responsibility. If I pay what is the economic rate of pay to that person, taking that home, then that is what I am obliged to do. There is confusion about redistributing wealth. It is the Government's job to redistribute wealth; it is not my job. It is not my job to pay above what I can afford to pay. If I do then I will go out of business. I have to compete in the open market so one cannot ask me to pay above the economic rate.
The consistent poverty rate is highest among the unemployed at 19.2% and is lowest for those at work at 1.9%, which is a tenfold difference. The whole thing is to get people back working, not charge more for the people who are lucky enough to be in work.
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