Falling incomes have brought down shutters on shops & businesses
Issued : Tuesday 8 February, 2011
Protecting wages and welfare key to economic recovery
Reductions in the minimum wage and social welfare rates not only impact on the living standards of those directly affected, they also constitute an assault on local businesses, according to Labour General Election Candidate Cllr Eric Byrne.
Cllr Byrne was speaking at the launch this evening of his General Election campaign, where he signed a pledge committing himself to work to reverse the minimum wage cut which took effect a week ago today.
“The wage-slashing lobby, and their political henchmen, have argued that wage floors – whether the minimum wage or JLC agreements – undermine competitiveness and employment. In fact, wages make up just one portion of labour costs – and labour costs account for just a portion of business costs. Rents, broadband, waste disposal and professional fees are the areas where Ireland has lost competitiveness
“Businesses know that it is not their employees’ wages that are strangling their trade – but the lack of consumer demand as job losses continue and wages and social welfare rates are cut.
“We will only restore economic growth and jobs by increasing demand. And that means protecting and boosting the disposable incomes of low and middle income earners, who tend to spend rather than save most of their money. Unlike Ireland, most other European countries have this basic rule of economics to heart and actually raised their minimum wage rates during the recession.
“Falling incomes have brought down the shutters on shops and businesses throughout Ireland. The Labour Party’s pledge to reverse the minimum wage cut is just one part of an economic strategy designed to raise the shutters on business and get us working again.”
Speaking at Cllr Byrne’s campaign launch, Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa said: “In Ireland over 600,000 people are at risk of poverty while in Europe more than 85 million people are living in poverty. The risk for children, families and older people is higher than other categories.
“While Europe is committed on paper to lifting 20 million people out of poverty over the next ten years, current austerity policies
driven by Fianna Fáil and their allies in Europe are undermining this objective.
“Labour and our sister parties in the European Parliament are committed to pushing for a European legal minimum income which would be an effective tool to ensure that European policies could not oblige us to implement budgetary policies which attacks those on low incomes.”
