UK conservatives support raising Minimum Wage

[Althusser]

I've seen a few articles about the Tories in support of raising the minumum wage in the UK. Every liberal analysis goes something like "look british conservatives aren't evil like US republicans. They care about the plight of the poor!"

Here's one: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2535209/Tories-plotting-50p-rise-minimum-wage-counter-image-posh-boys-touch-low-paid-workers.html

I've been trying to think about this critically. What section of the ruling class benefits from a raise in the minimum wage? Since it is done in bourgeois democracies often, there must be some way that it would reproduce existing social relations. There isn't any revolutionary movement to make concessions to out of fear, so I am a bit confused. What are the long-term/short-term benefits from raising the minimum wage.

Also, I'm trying to understand how raising the minimum wage would affect the purchase power of the working class and what this purpose might serve. Thanks.

[motion denied]

Consumption rises.

Well, I missed the last line in the OP. I'll elaborate later.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

A minimum wage increase wouldn't compensate (from a working class perspective) for all the cuts and decreased services. It's a crumb cynically thrown from their table.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Raising the minimum wage to £7.00/hr, whilst taking into account rising cost of living, would take the minimum wage back to 2008 spending power. And there's some doubt that Osbourne could even get it through parliament even if he wanted to try (this is the party that promised no top-down reorganisation of the NHS and then reneged on their promise without any remorse). It's a cynical soundbite in the same spirit as the cynical soundbite Milliband was offering in that he would 'save the middle class' or whatever: it's just the two parties nipping at each others' heels to get votes.

[Q]

£7.00/hr? That translates to €8.50. In the Netherlands it's the same* and it's a very meagre wage indeed. In an expensive place like London it's simply not enough.

*Mind you that this is only the minimum wage for those of 23 years and older. People from 15 to 23 get a fraction of this money (http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/minimumloon/vraag-en-antwoord/hoe-hoog-is-het-minimumloon.html). Outrageous stuff.

[helot]

Let's not forget that their aim is also to extend workfare. Plus we can also look at the creation of "apprenticeships" which are really just entry level jobs that now pay only ~£2.60 an hour. Shit, half the jobs i find are these "apprenticeships"

[ed miliband]

here's the interesting thing about the minimum wage in the uk: it was introduced by labour in the late 90s in the absence of any mass class movement - it was not a reform made to quell the demands of the class, in fact, it was made at a time in which the class struggle was at its lowest level in many decades.

michael heinrich points out:


The essential precondition of capitalist accumulation is the existence of wage-laborers. Their reproduction is made possible by the wage paid by capital. For an individual capital, the wage (just like occupational health and safety measures) constitutes a cost factor that must be minimized in order to obtain the highest possible profit under the pressure of competition. If capital does not encounter resistance in the form of strong trade unions or similar associations, then excessively long working time, unhealthy and dangerous working conditions, and starvation wages will be imposed that prevent the reproduction of labor-power: a tendency toward the destruction of labor-power is thus intrinsic to capital’s drive (imposed by competition) for an increasingly greater valorization. The individual capitalist might recognize this and even regret it, but he can’t do much to change things if he wishes to avoid bankruptcy. So that capital does not destroy its object of exploitation, this object must be protected by compulsory state laws. A legal workday (see Capital, 1: chapter 10), regulations concerning occupational health and safety, as well as a legal minimum wage (or state welfare measures that function as a minimum wage level)—all of which were first imposed through workers’ struggles—limit capital’s possibilities for valorization, but secure them in the long term.

https://libcom.org/blog/state-capital-07012014

i mean, i think that's pretty basic stuff so i'm not adding anything really - but in the long-run the minimum wage helps ensure the reproduction of labour-power.

but yeah, the minimum wage itself is hardly enough to live on. a few of my friends are on apprentice wages, like £4.something an hour. try living on that in london!

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

it still isn't a living wage, especially with extortionate inflation, the cost of necessities like food which have skyrocketed, the cost of rent and as noxion said the actual effects of austerity on services etc.

since when have the tories ever done anything that would actually benefit the working class? its not even in their interests. this policy is merely a buffer in between the deepening crisis in living standards and the austerity agenda. a band-aid on a gushing axe-wound.

there's a reason its called a "minimum wage", as in that its the minimum you can pay someone to keep them working and consuming.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Let's not forget that their aim is also to extend workfare. Plus we can also look at the creation of "apprenticeships" which are really just entry level jobs that now pay only ~£2.60 an hour. Shit, have the jobs i find are these "apprenticeships"

I've never understood the rationale for paying apprenticeships so fucking poorly, even if they are the genuine article.

[helot]

I've never understood the rationale for paying apprenticeships so fucking poorly, even if they are the genuine article.

Fuck knows tbh with you. I've heard a few excuses like apprentices being young and thus not have as many bills to pay (same excuse they use for age differences in minimum wage) also to do with them in effect 'learning'. Tbh i just think it's piss poor excuses. I fail to see any decent rationale for why someone who's on the job training should automatically be paid less than someone who's finished their training.

[Polciu]

They don't support raising the minimum wage because they feel empathy for common British workers. They just use it as a mean of getting C2/DE citizens to vote them to so that they can stay in power in 2015, so that they will be able to continue the cuts and austerity, making even bigger profits from the growing exploitation.

They will probably even implement very rightist reforms too in order to gain support from the current UKIP voters which are calling Tories too leftist.

But then again, Labour is going to do the same. It's all about populism these days.

[RedWaves]

Don't matter if they raise it or not, the bourgeois will find a way over this to continue oppressing them, they always do.

If Minimum wage is raised, they can immediately stop hiring people and use that as an excuse for it. "See we pay you more now, don't complain!" that's how it works in America at least.