The solution seems quite clear

It seems that once again, the Guardian is trying to convince us that poverty actually exists in England

‘Living in poverty’: workers at business ministry go on strike

Unfortunately these workers are unable to feed an clothe themselves and have no access to clean water or medical care…

Just kidding. This is ‘poverty’ in England we’re talking about, not real poverty

Catering staff earning as little as £7.83 an hour danced and sang outside their work at the business department as they staged a 26-hour strike in protest at what they described as poverty pay.

The minimum wage is currently £7.38, so their ‘as little as’, is higher than employers are obliged to pay and certainly not poverty pay by a long haul

Many of the outsourced catering team at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) earn no more than the minimum wage, well below the £10.55 that the Living Wage Foundation calculates is necessary for an adequate life in the capital

Maybe if you’re only capable of earning minimum wage and that is not enough for a life in the capital,you shouldn’t be living in the capital? Yes I know, it’s difficult to be able to move away from your place of birth sometimes, particularly if you don’t have the means…

What?

Ana Joaquim, from Wood Green, who is originally from Portugal, earns £8.50 an hour as a barista at BEIS

“We are living in poverty in this company,” she said. “They pay the minimal national wage; we are not entitled to 28 days’ holiday.”

So you moved from a country with a much lower minimum wage and planted yourself right in the most expensive part of the UK. What exactly do you want? Yes, I know, money for nothing

Her colleague Novlette Hurd, from Wandsworth, who is originally from Jamaica, earns even less – £8.19 per hour…

Now I’ve no idea what the minimum wage is in Jamaica, or even if there is one, but surely if you purchase the plane ticket from Jamaica to the UK, it’s probably a good idea to settle in a part of the country where you can live on the wage you are qualified to earn?

…despite 21 years’ service at the department. “We can’t live because, for starters, I’ve got dependent children and it’s just not going anywhere,” Hurd said.

So you’ve been earning the minimum wage for 21 years, without doing anything to better yourself or move to a more affordable part of the country and still chose to have children? Whose fucking fault is that?

Like, you think, why do I bother to work?

Like, some people actually have a moral code and would prefer to earn for themselves, even if it’s not a lot, than scrounge from others who do go to work. If you can even ask that question, it says a lot about you as a person

The private contractors Aramark and Engie should be ashamed of themselves for not paying staff the London living wage.

The trouble is, the living / minimum wage is the problem, not the solution. If you artificially increase wages across the board, the cost of all the goods and services increases in line, making nobody better off in the long run

The only way to get more money is to improve your skills and experience and earn more, or cut your cloth and spend less. Part of that means not emigrating from a rather poor country and setting up camp in one of the most expensive places in the west, to live