Madam, - Now that talks on a national pay deal are again in progress is it not time to call a halt to the pernicious rounds of percentage wage increases? It does not take a mathematical genius to realise that a 5 per cent pay rise, for example, is far more beneficial to a worker on, say, €60,000 than a worker on €20,000. The former ends up with €63,000, the latter with €21,000. When this process is repeated time and again under successive wage rounds the difference is compounded.
The net result is a widening of the gap between the well off and the poor leading to a more and more unequal society. The lower paid are unable to buy their own homes while the better off are buying second and third houses.
In his book The Impact of Inequality Richard G Wilkinson shows how an unequal society leads to increasing levels of violence, industrial unrest, and low levels of social capital. On the other hand, he shows that a more equal society leads to a healthier, less stressful society with high levels of involvement in community life and lower levels of violence.
Instead of percentage wage increases, a much fairer method would be for each worker to receive the same amount. This would cost the same but every worker would benefit equally. Indeed to redress the imbalance already built into the system, ideally the lower paid should get a bigger increase in real terms than the better off.
It should also be pointed out that inflationary pressures in the cost of living hit the poor hardest - an increase in the price of petrol, for instance, costs the lower paid proportionally more than the wealthy. - Yours, etc,
BILL SILKE, Beach Court, Galway.