The minimum wage and poverty

Distorting a position and repeating the misrepresentation does not make the falsification in question less of a lie. In the light of certain false claims made recently in the media and elsewhere, Kampanja Paga Minima Deċenti KPMD reiterates that, since its inception, it never claimed that increasing the minimum wage would solve all issues related to poverty; other measures need to be enacted to achieve this aim. Yet, Kampanja Paga Minima Deċenti has exhorted the government to increase the minimum wage as a matter of social justice. The overcautious Caritas report scientifically indicates that the minimum wage as stipulated by law does not meet the aim for which the minimum wage was established. In the light of this, Kampanja Paga Minima Deċenti is very prudently suggesting an 11 per cent increase in the minimum wage spread over three years; a marginal increase that would finally amount to an increase of less than €80 a month in workers’ wages. If this increase in salary to workers who are on a minimum wage will lead to a similar increase (i.e. by 11 per cent of the minimum wage over three years) in the wages of workers in other low-paid sectors, the effect would be doubly positive. An increase to these salaries will keep relativity as well as have the positive effect of increasing the lowest wages which are currently insufficient. This will have the further positive economic effect of boosting spending and the circulation of money. Our very strong economy can sustain such increases and will benefit from them.

By increasing the minimum wage by 11 per cent over three years, the government would not be abetting an entitlement culture but would enact a measure that would move our society closer to meeting one requirement of social justice; that workers be paid decent wages for the job they perform.