Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697751359379.pdf (Ireland)
Westmeath Examiner By Tim Ryan, Oireachtas Correspondent Penrose seeks to close gap between the minimum and living wage Details of any Government plans to close the gap between the minimum wage and the living wage were sought in the Dáil by Labour Deputy Willie Penrose.

“As the Minister (Regina Doherty) knows the living wage technical group said in July last that the wage required for a minimum acceptable standard of living in Ireland is €11.70 an hour,” he said.
“Can the Minister set out a pathway to close the gap between the minimum wage and the living wage, taking account of the fact that it cannot be done instantaneously but over a period of time as suggested by the Labour Party?” The living wage was based on the concept that we should provide an adequate income to enable individuals to afford a socially acceptable standard of living, he said.
The Low Pay Commission recommended a 30 cent increase in the minimum wage to come into effect in January which will bring it up to €9.55 an hour.

“Last year there was a derisory 10 cent,” he said.


“It is almost 18 months since the Government was formed and it has yet to provide any guidance to the Low Pay Commission to even allow it work towards its target of €10.50 an hour which is in the programme for Government, let alone a real living wage of €11.70 an hour.” In reply, the Minister for Social Protection said the Low Pay Commission was established through the National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Act 2015.
Its principal function is, once each year, to examine the national minimum hourly rate of pay and to make a recommendation to the Minister regarding the rate, ensuring that any recommendations are evidence based, fair and sustainable, and do not create significant adverse consequences for employment or competitiveness.

“It is important that Ireland's statutory national minimum wage and the living wage concept are not conflated,” she said.
“The living wage is a voluntary societal initiative centred on the social, business and economic case to ensure that, wherever it can be afforded, employers will pay a rate of pay that provides an income that is sufficient to meet an individual's basic needs, such as housing, food, clothing, transport and health care.
In doing this, the living wage concept does not distinguish between types of earners, for example, between primary breadwinners and second earners such as students in part-time jobs.” People being forced to present as self-employed to get work - Penrose Concern that people are being forced to present as self-employed to get work was raised in the Dáil by Deputy Willie Penrose.

“It is an issue in the construction industry,” he said.

“We are not all living in cloud cuckoo-land, because it is.
The returns to the national training levy - the 0.7% levy was correctly applied - is now 9% or €21 million less than profile.” There is much disguised employment, he said.

“There are innovative people in disguised employment.

There are people setting up as companies with one employee in employment.

Then there is an individual who is dependent on and under the control of the employer and who is forced into accepting self-employed conditions and being classified as in self- employment.
As I have spent my life being self-employed, I know it is a different system.” In reply, Minister Regina Doherty said that there are people out there who are in vulnerable positions who do not know that the Department is there to help.
“I will make sure that they know while at the same time improving the employee rights, improving the employee benefits through the social contribution fund, and extending it to all self-employed to ensure that they are looked after as well as someone who is in employment.” “The big part of this that is a puzzle to me - I am far from finished looking at it - is how I get to the employers to ensure that those who are manipulating the system get to pay into the Social Insurance Fund the same way as everybody does,” she said.
“That is a little more complex than I originally thought when I took over a few months ago.”