I have been paid the minimum wage and the lesson you learn when you’re on it is you want to do whatever it takes not to be on it. These days its $14.75, it’s up 50 cents an hour.

The trouble of course is it’s never enough. Not the hourly rate, not the increase. The other trouble is that most of the people who complain about it, do so with the luxury of other people’s money.

It’s easy to call for more when you’re not footing the bill.

We speak of the minimum wage as though it’s life’s lot, as though those who are on it are on it forever, and as a result it leads to poverty misery and deprivation.

It is not the case. When I started on the lowest rate going, there was no expectation I was staying there.

No one thinks the minimum wage is good or luxurious, but like all things economic it’s a starting point, and you get more when you contribute more, you get more when you bring more to the table, you get more when you're worth more.

The equation here isn't that complex, which is why I have never understood this madness around the living wage.

Wages aren't paid on what would be nice for you to earn, never have never will, and wages are based on affordability not your personal circumstances. 

A wage for one person no matter what that wage can be plenty or it can be a pittance, depends who you are and what you’re about. 

We could of course pay a lot less and employ more people, the same way if we pay more we’ll have fewer jobs.

That’s the other bit I can’t get my head around with the old living wage campaign. 

You can only pay what you can pay and if you pay more, there’s less to go around, which means you employ fewer people. So what do they want?

A few people getting more or more people with work, and here’s the other good news in this whole debate - there has never been a better time to improve yourself.

If you’re on the minimum wage, then the opportunities to study to up skill to change jobs to change direction have never been greater. 

There are jobs galore in this country, there are courses left right and centre, and as always employers are crying out for good people.

But it’s a two way street. The rewards come from contribution and hard work. 

Handouts and fanciful demands for money for nothing really are the catch cry of another era coming from people who live in a time warp and never really understood basic economics. 

An economy’s greatest role is to give those who want it every opportunity and chance to excel. 

We have one of these economies. The rest is up to those that want to take it.