Minimum wage reduction?

Yay! My first post...and straight down to business.

The issue of a potential cut to the minimum wage was raised on "The Frontline" on RTÉ last night. Unsurprisingly, the idea was quite an unpopular one with members of the audience. However, there seems to be a growing appeal from small businesses to review the matter.

I remember saying last year that a significant reduction (say, more than a euro) was a neccesity. In fact, I even thought scrapping it altogether could be a possibility. On reflection, this might've been somewhat hasty but my thoughts now are largely the same. Perhaps such a large cut isn't needed but I believe even a small reduction would have a positive impact on competitiveness.

Pat Kenny last evening cited OECD figures which places Ireland's minimum wage second in the EU, after only Luxembourg. Admittedly we fall to 5th place in real terms when adjusted for the cost of living but combined with the grim state of the country's retail and hospitality sectors this figure is still out of line with where it should be.

As a student myself, with a part-time job paying on or around the minimum wage, a cut isn't something I should be looking for. However, personal interests aside, restoring the economy's competitiveness is the utmost concern. In general we've been paying ourselves too much across the board. We had no problem increasing incomes (inc. min wage) in line with inflation (or above it as the case usually was) so whats the difference now with deflation of over 5% last year.

I'm under no illusions though, the odds are firmly against any cut. Its unforseeable that the government would even consider it as it would be even more unpopular than public sector cutbacks I suspect.