tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post5827113927012512862..comments2023-08-16T12:07:22.995+00:00Comments on The Daily (Maybe): Guest Post: Should we have a maximum wage? Stuart JeffreyJim Jeppshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17410387006098326671noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post-13738968963730569172011-05-09T14:08:19.610+00:002011-05-09T14:08:19.610+00:00Thank you, very interesting site.Thank you, very interesting site.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post-67743594740534161332009-10-31T21:27:04.836+00:002009-10-31T21:27:04.836+00:00It's al coming back to me now - it was the phr...It's al coming back to me now - it was the phrase 100% tax rate that set people's heart rates a flutter. I think they imagined the headlines - "Greens vote for 100% taxation" you see, that just makes me want it all the more, after all at least then the press would have something worth covering at conference.Jim Jeppshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17410387006098326671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post-39508363244549504352009-10-29T06:48:50.885+00:002009-10-29T06:48:50.885+00:00Bonkers. People wouldn't bother to set up anyt...Bonkers. People wouldn't bother to set up anything more than lifestyle businesses if income were so limited. If Bill Gates could have only made £100k a year, why expand Microsoft beyond a small software development shop? The temptation of bigger rewards results in bigger companies and higher employment.Peter Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15128608987278611416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post-50502476575620723362009-10-27T08:40:26.182+00:002009-10-27T08:40:26.182+00:00The case for equality is overwhelming. And I think...The case for equality is overwhelming. And I think that the case for a maximum wage is very strong. However, it is also very far from being practical politics right now, and it is easy to mock and attack and could make the Green Party vulnerable to particularly unpleasant right-wing-media assault (which is why it was voted down in the debate, a couple of years back, so I understand). Furthermore, you have not addressed the very grave difficulties in introducing it in any meaningful way, Stuart: such as the fact that a maximum wage, that made it impossible for high-earners to earn ANY more, would be something that high earners put enormous effort into bypassing via dividend payments, etc. etc<br />My proposed more modest alternative, which I think is practical politics and would actually work, is this:<br />• A maximum income differential in percentage terms between boss and lowest-paid employee in each company. And the differential should be narrowed in percentage terms each year. It should never be allowed to grow in absolute terms at all. (This idea is a slightly more subtle and equality-friendly version the Danish law referred to above.)<br />• Wage rises should be on a cash-amount basis, not a percentage basis. In other words, everyone in a given organisation would get the same wage rise, each year, in monetary terms. Over time, this would reduce the percentage difference between high adn low earning employees very considerably, and eventually might make it trivial.<br />The beauty of my proposals (you need both, because the second one only applies if there is an actual wage/salary _rise_, which in a recession there is not) is that they _encourage_ the higher wage earners (including top bosses) to raise the wages of the poorer workers in their company/organisation. And they actually narrow the rich-poor gap - they diminish relative poverty - in the process. In other words: they attack inequality, and bring equality nearer, in a way that doesn't render the better-off as angry resisters of the process.Ruperthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04334135270533978426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post-83747621975400716162009-10-27T08:25:15.936+00:002009-10-27T08:25:15.936+00:00The Danish idea sounds a good one, although I woul...The Danish idea sounds a good one, although I would certainly support a Maximum wage as Green Party Policy, as it sends out the right signals that we are committed to a more equal society.<br />I can't see how it can be a vote looser really, how many of the super rich vote for us anyway? <br />Cuba, as well as having some of the most equal rates of pay, is according to the WWF Human Developement Index the only country<br />with sustainable developement.<br />Hopefully the mood in the Green Party has shifted.Red Green Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09276164119703619629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post-42519544950862150392009-10-26T21:49:19.237+00:002009-10-26T21:49:19.237+00:00I don’t believe any of the most income-equal socie...I don’t believe any of the most income-equal societies identified in the Spirit Level/Equality Trust have maximum wages. In fact one of the most unequal societies, used to have a de facto maximum wage the United States! From 1942 until 1964 the highest US tax bracket had a rate of 91%. I’m not philosophically opposed to a maximum wage, and there are economic advantages, I just don’t believe such a policy is an effective driver for equality. <br /><br />There are alternative policies, for example a relative earnings limit. Denmark doesn’t have a maximum wage, yet is one of the most income-equal societies. In Denmark they have a relative earnings limit- a link between the lowest wages and highest - so no one may earn more than seven times the amount the lowest paid worker in an organisation. Ergo if your shop-floor workers are getting £20,000 a year, £140,000 is the maximum the Chief Executive/top earner can receive. This greater equality is not a dis-incentive to business, quite the opposite; US business magazine Forbes says Denmark has the ‘best business climate in the world’. <br /><br />Denmark is usually ranked as one of the happiest place in the world, with the highest standards of health, welfare, and education; of course income-equality is the major contributor to this, but it isn’t the whole story. Don’t forget more equal societies are better for everyone even the rich.<br /><br />BTW of the ten most equal countries according to the Spirit Level/Equality Trust, seven are constitutional monarchies. Of the ten most unequal only three are constitutional monarchies –all sharing the same monarch.David Coxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03074466074735623957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post-89719302303781224652009-10-26T18:09:32.371+00:002009-10-26T18:09:32.371+00:00I don't think it was to do with the wording, b...I don't think it was to do with the wording, but the PR impact, basically. If I remember rightly, Darren J and others argued that it would be electorally suicidal and that a high tax rate was adequate anyway for what we want to do, I and others argued that it was an essential component of a radical equality agenda. <br /><br />To be fair, the 'everyone would just evade it anyway' argument also came up, although I don't buy that. We don't abandon laws against thieving because some people break them, after all!<br /><br />It's an interesting discussion whose time has come again, I think.<br /><br />Matt<br /><br />P.S. Apologies if I'm misremembering the debate, but I don't think I am?Matt Sellwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03065263755893515703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post-11601042589361693802009-10-26T18:04:11.023+00:002009-10-26T18:04:11.023+00:00Someone asked me about this a little while ago and...Someone asked me about this a little while ago and I was trying to remember why it was voted down. I've a feeling it was something about the wording rather than the principle - but can't for the life of me remember the ins and outs... do you remember?Jim Jeppshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17410387006098326671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30598467.post-80442249827465500722009-10-26T17:55:36.321+00:002009-10-26T17:55:36.321+00:00I recall a few years ago we had a motion come to G...I recall a few years ago we had a motion come to GP Conference setting out a maximum wage. It was terminated with extreme prejudice and the usual combination of innuendo and contempt by the Handbrake Tendency. Pity.DocRichardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08903964792092284406noreply@blogger.com