EU Directive: Adequate Minimum Wages
Debate between Lord Leong and Lord Hannan of Kingsclere
Lord Leong (Lab)
My Lords, I fully acknowledge that businesses face challenges and that micro-businesses operate with narrow margins and encounter real pressures, and these businesses are the ones that employ young people. However, the evidence consistently shows that paying staff fairly strengthens businesses in the long run: higher wages and lower staff turnover boost morale and productivity and help businesses keep experienced workers. Crucially, these wages are then spent within local communities, often in small shops, cafés and services right across the country. A national living wage supports not only workers but the resilience of local communities.
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (Con)
My Lords, we have been lucky enough to have a 30-year run of structurally low unemployment, which is now coming to an end, especially with younger workers—partly because of the national insurance rise that the noble Lord, Lord Fox, just raised; partly because of the general economic situation; partly because of the Employment Rights Act; but also partly because of these huge recent rises in the minimum wage, which have especially hit the hospitality industry. Does the Minister see the danger that as we have more and more workers’ rights, we have fewer and fewer workers?
Lord Leong (Lab)
The noble Lord would not expect me to agree with him, and I do not. As I mentioned in yesterday’s debate on the regret amendment, and I shall share it again, Confucius reminds us that harmony among people is the best foundation for great achievement, and when we work together, success belongs to all. We have to address this issue of disparity between workers who are paid less and less in the overall scheme of things and the average wage in the country. We need to balance that up to two-thirds of the median wage.
UK/US Free Trade Agreement
Debate between Lord Leong and Lord Hannan of Kingsclere(1 year, 2 months ago)
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Lord Leong (Lab)
I thank my noble friend for that point—it is absolutely true. As I said, our relationship with the US has to be strong. We have so many partnership agreements, whether it is on defence, trade co-operation and so on, so we have to work with the incoming Administration, come what may.
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (Con)
My Lords, the US is not just our single biggest market; it is bigger than our second, third and fourth markets put together, and nearly as big as our second, third, fourth and fifth put together. A million Brits turn up every day to work for US-owned companies, and a million Americans turn up every day to work for British-owned companies. Will the Minister confirm that, if we followed the suggestion of the Lib Dem Front Bench and joined the EU customs union, not only would we not be able to negotiate a trade deal, either with the US or with anyone else in the world, but we would be subjected to all the tariffs that Trump is likely to impose on the EU in return for no benefit whatever?
Lord Leong (Lab)
I thank the noble Lord for that question. We have taken back control. We work with the US, the EU and every other country. We are an open trading economy, and that benefits both our businesses and consumers.