City Comment: Hamish Champ

An industry bigwig once suggested how odd it was of The Publican to employ me, a "left-wing socialist" (as opposed to a right-wing one, presumably), to write on City and business issues. I tend not to let loose my political views on these pages - and for the record I'm not a LWS - although challenging the perceived orthodoxy of doing business and raising hackles in certain industry quarters is part and parcel of this job.

So... businesses are established to make their owners a profit. With this end in mind, such businesses employ 'staff'. Companies understandably attempt to mitigate overheads, and I know that wages are a significant proportion of a business' cost base. Therefore the national minimum wage (NMW) is seen in many quarters as a major problem. A government-imposed edict that demands above-inflationary pay rises for barstaff, etc, hardly cheers the hearts of any business, small or large. The sustainability of a business and the job opportunities it generates depend on keeping costs down, so let companies manage this as they see fit. If people don't want to work for what is being offered they don't have to take it, do they? Well, actually, sometimes they do, but that's another issue.

That said, I can't help feeling slightly queasy when I read of large corporations and their lobby groups complaining about the inexorable rise of the NMW. For a seven-hour day, five days a week, £5.65 equates to £9,500 a year. In rural areas this is a fortune, but try living on this in a major city like Manchester or London.

I understand the pain mandatory wage policies can cause a small company, and some flexibility should be afforded these entities, maybe based on regional variations.

But the pub sector has enough of a PR job on its hands without coming across as being miserly as well.