Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In many cases it is a subsidy to low-wage employers. As it stands, the minimum wage law has an appeals mechanism in place whereby an employer who cannot afford to pay the minimum wage can appeal that and go through a process to agree it. The same practice would be possible with the living wage, and we have included that in our policies. What Fine Gael is doing at the moment is subsidising too many bad employers. Workers who work for a living deserve to earn a living. That is what a living wage means.