Remember how we’re all in this together?

Last week’s burger-man interview kick-started a discussion on how we share national income, writes

DID you hear the interview with yer man Pat “Supermac’s” McDonagh? The fabulously rich burger guy? It’s things like that keep me going, these days.

Some people will tell you they spilt their morning coffee over Sarah McInerney’s “bag of chips” remark, but it was Pat’s more subtle “no longer in vogue” moment that made my day.

The event was the most enjoyable radio diversion since Marian Finucane interviewed Minister Joe Jacobs about the iodine tablets (“First of all, Marian, I’m very qualified to talk to you about nuclear issues”).

Some time before the radio interview, I saw Mr McDonagh being interviewed on a news report, expressing his views on people who work hard for a living, and what they ought to be paid.

Or, not paid.

Pat’s not just a businessman, he’s become a celebrity businessman, a go-to guy for comments on issues of national importance, such as the pandemic payment.

When Pat turned up on the McInerney show he came with a pre-packed anecdote, the one about the mother and son who work for one of Pat’s burger joints.

Pat’s Tragic Anecdote went like this (though you’ll have to imagine the deeply felt indignation).

There’s a youngfella works for Pat, and the youngfella’s mother, too.

And when the coronavirus descended on us the Government needed to close down businesses where people gather, to stop the spread of the deadly disease. So, they had to give people enough money to keep body and soul together while deprived of work through no fault of their own.

There was no time to arrange the usual inequalities to which we’re addicted, everyone had to get the same basic payment.

And, says Pat, the young fella is a student, “he worked eight hours a week, he got somewhere between €80 and €100 a week”.

Yet — and, you’ll hardly credit this, but it’s the

God’s truth — they both get the same €350 pandemic payment.

So vivid was Pat’s account of this foul injustice that I could actually see, through my radio, the deep lines of anguish burning into his trembling jowls.

“Now,” says Pat, “there’s no incentive for him to come back to work because he’s on a winner, he’s won the Lotto.”

For a moment I thought that was bit of a coincidence, the youngfella winning the Lotto on top of that €350 ...then, the penny dropped.

Pat took a bit of a backlash over this.

And some of us weren’t too enthused to hear about him docking 20c every hour from every worker, for the coffee they’re allowed drink. And for what they might eat, in between getting the rest of us our burgers and chips.

Pat referred to a “meal worth €10” in return for this €1.60. But — come on, Pat, let’s not talk raw material costs versus the retail price you charge.

And since the €1.60 is docked relentlessly, whether or not the workers eat or drink anything — ah, jayzus, Pat, I really don’t want to be judgmental, but, jayzus, Pat.

Rough calculation coming up.

Let’s say Supermac’s has 3,000 workers. And each is docked 20c an hour for coffee which they might not drink. In an eight-hour shift, the 3,000 workers will kickback €4,800.

Which, if my calculator is working right, is very roughly €1.7m a year.

Sarah McInerney reminded Pat of his recent €23m profits and asked him if he mightn’t give the workers a free “bag of chips”.

I can’t personally verify this, but rumour is the Richter vibration machines registered the effects on

Pat’s trembling jowls as far away as Cornwall.

When McInerney mentioned the €1.25 that Pat docks for allowing workers to wear a Supermac’s uniform, he punched back by informing her “that’s no longer in vogue”.

In vogue. Like charging the minimum-wage staff for wearing your uniform was a kind of fashion thing that Pat’s no longer into.

It’s not just the figures that are remarkable. It’s the fact that Pat feels the injustice of that youngfella getting €350 a week when in Pat’s view he’s entitled to no more than €100.

Pat feels it so deeply he engaged in two interviews warning us, in effect, that we might have trouble weaning the nation’s low paid workers off the pandemic payments.

Will we, I ask myself, ever be able to get them back on to the minimum wage where they belong?

And I don’t think Pat’s unique. In fact, I have the figures to prove it.

We’re a nation of SuperPats.

The push and pull between workers and employers, at a local level, is reflected in how we share out the national income that the “all-in-this-together” economy generates.

In the small print of various reports on the economy you’ll find references to “labour” and “capital”. Those who get their income through selling their work are categorised as labour. Those who get their income through profits, dividends, rents etc are categorised under capital.

Back in the 1970s — those allegedly bad old days — labour across Europe got 75pc of the national income, with 25pc going to capital.

In the 1980s, that started coming down. There was a political swing to the right internationally, throughout the last two decades of the century.

It was reflected here in the emergence of the Progressive Democrats, who pushed Fianna Fail to the right. Economically right-wing conservatives, with liberal social policies, dominated Fine Gael.

So, we got divorce, but trade unions took a hiding.

Today, official figures say the top 1pc here gets 5.6pc of national income, but a Tasc report suggests it’s actually about 12pc.

The figures for the labour share tend to be buried in reports and they vary between 65pc and 50pc.

Four out of 10 workers in the “hospitality sector” are on low pay. And almost a quarter of retail workers.

Does the 40pc of the Irish people on the lowest income get 40pc of national pay?

No, it’s 22pc.

The top 1pc of earners took 34pc of gross income a decade ago. Today, the figure is 39pc. And, that increase has to come from somewhere.

It’s gross income that’s grossly unfair. The saving grace in this country is that income taxes and social welfare are progressive — they help to bring about a fairer distribution of the wealth we all create.

So, hurrah for tax and social welfare.

However, what aspects of Irish life have our FG/FF types been obsessing about of late?

Tax cuts. They promise them to all, but the major benefit is to the betteroff. The rest of us will get pennies, and suffer further cuts in services.

Meanwhile, our current Taoiseach has led the charge to demonise those on social welfare as “benefit cheats”.

The combination of tax cuts and undermining social welfare comprise a highly class-conscious effort to weaken the more equitable aspects of the system, to further increase the shares of income going to the better off.

This threatens further inroads on working class and lower middle class incomes.

During this pandemic we’ve found out the extent to which society relies on people whose incomes are cut to the bone by imaginative employers. Maybe we should do something about that.

But, putting fairness aside, the IMF has said that income inequality causes “tension in society”. And that damages the economy.

In the 1970s, we had strong trade unions that demanded and got a fairer share.

Now, in the absence of strong unions and achievable goals, societal tension is released in drugs, drink, depression and crank politics.

Anyway, I think RTE should give Pat McDonagh his own series. They could call it, ‘All In This Together’.