Should we pay a minimum wage or a living income?

Cutting tax credits and raising the minimum wage puts the onus of income on having a job - jobs which are increasingly at risk

Most rich countries now have millions of "working poor" - people whose jobs do not pay enough to keep them above the poverty line, and whose wages therefore have to be subsidised by the state. These subsidies take the form of tax credits.

The idea is a very old one. England implemented its "Speenhamland" system - a form of outdoor relief intended to offset rising bread prices - during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1795, the authorities of Speenhamland, a village in Berkshire, authorised a means-tested sliding scale of wage supplements. The supplements that families received varied with the number of children and the price of bread.