[user104658]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

The fact is you have people in America working full time and still being unable to support themselves, if people can't support a basic living by working full time than that's a huge issue. Now is absolutely the time to raise minimum wage.

Perhaps (unlikely, but perhaps) it'll spread to the UK, where minimum wage should be at least £11.50 - £12 an hour by now. The main issue with that, I guess, if that you'd have to bump up professional wages proportionately (e.g. entry level for a band 5 nurse would have to go up to about £15/h (currently £12.50) as no one is going to undergo years of training for a job that pays 50p over minimum wage. But really that's a positive; the knock on effect of "supply and demand" would mean that Nursing, emergency services, teachers salaries etc. would all increase... in retail experienced managers would be able to command higher salaries... etc etc.