In his response to my article on the dangers of a national minimum wage, Imraan Valodia calls me an "ideologue" and accuses me of holding views he admits are not contained in my article! (Potential disemployment effect of minimum wage carefully weighed, February 14) He then dismisses my and the Centre for Development and Enterprise’s argument without responding to its substance. People who have nothing to sell but their labour should be protected from exploitation by employers. However, the basic principles of economics still apply. The past 20 years have demonstrated that artificially raising the price of labour will mean fewer people are employed. We should all be concerned that 47% of workers earn less than the proposed minimum wage, but changing the pay structures of so many people by decree is potentially dangerous. Who will pay for it? What are the implications for nearly 9-million unemployed? Valodia disagrees with my assessment that his panel’s reliance on international evid...
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