Confused Thinking
The Centre for Social Justice have proposed that the state subsidise the salaries of low paid workers, so that they can earn more than if they were on benefits. In this way, the Centre argues, people will be encouraged to come off benefits and return to work, at a lower cost to the state.
This seems a rather confused argument. Of course we should applaud all attempts to increase salaries and standards of living. But isn’t this exactly the same argument as was used to justify the minimum wage? Except that in that case it was employers, rather than government who were to bear the cost. And since, according to the Centre for Social Justice, despite the minimum wage there is still a need to get people off benefits, the argument that higher salaries will drive people back to work is clearly not valid.
Secondly, in a recession, with unemployment continuing to rise, it is not at all clear where the jobs are going to come from to underpin this plan.
But most importantly, the plan is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature. Those people who choose to spend their lives on benefits do not, in the main, do so because they can earn more by not working. They do so because they do not want to go to work. And they do not want to go to work because they do not find work an enjoyable or engaging experience.
The real point here is that, as a society, we fail to understand the importance of integrating our careers into our wider lives. This is something that we feel very strongly about at Career Energy. Unless people can see that they have the opportunity to work at something that is meaningful, that enhances their sense of self worth and personal value, jobs will be no more than they ever were; a means to an end, a way of earning a living. We live in a more demanding world now, one in which we all expect greater satisfaction from our working lives. The incentive to work needs to be more than just money alone. And certainly far greater than the minimal increase in income proposed by the Centre for Social Justice.
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Tags: benefits, Career Advice, Career Change, Career Consulants, Career Energy, career management, Career Planning, Centre for Social Justice, job, job hunting, job search, unemployment
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