RE: The ‘Living Wage’: an employer’s idea of a living wage, will always be miles away from what it should be. An employer will, all things being equal, pay his employees as little as he or she can get away with. And not unexpectedly, this simple fact has been a constant battle between an employer and employee ever since the industrial revolution began.

After all, wages and salaries have always been (and continue to be) the largest fixed cost for any business – big or small. In other words, less wages mean more profits. One good reason, why most employers want to pay as little as possible. The economics of the ‘bottom line’.

However, nowadays, where trading within the normal parameters of business is less than ideal, the private commons (water, gas and electricity supplies etc) including the NHS, or anything publicly owned, is ripe for picking.

Ripe for exploitation. And never mind that what was once free at the point (the NHS) of delivery, will, one day, have to be paid for.

We are heading for that exact scenario, bit by bit. The privatisation of the entire public commons for profit.

And if all those employers think that the so-called ‘living wage’ is just that, perhaps they should have a go at trying to live on it for a few weeks?

Are there any employers out there who would like to give it go?

Probably not. Besides, words are cheap, right?

Andrew Martin

Abbotsbury Road

Weymouth