It is almost impossible for the next cabinet to regulate a higher minimum wage. This point has been raised in almost all preliminary election manifestos published to date. Left-wing parties have been arguing for this for years. It is particularly striking that the VVD now also wants this.
It is almost impossible for the next cabinet to regulate a higher minimum wage. This point has been raised in almost all preliminary election manifestos published so far. Left-wing parties have been arguing for this for years. It is particularly striking that the VVD now also wants this.
“A higher minimum wage, so that working also pays more for the lower incomes”, says the VVD program for the parliamentary elections for March 2021 published on Friday.
The other coalition parties are also interested. In the CDA program you can read: “Many people who work on the minimum wage can hardly live on the income they earn.”
According to D66, people with a higher minimum wage “can pay their bills more easily and at the same time it becomes more attractive to work on benefits”.
Marijnissen: ‘We now call low-paid jobs crucial’
These are sounds that were previously heard mainly by left-wing parties such as SP and PvdA.
“Super”, says SP leader Lilian Marijnissen in a response to NU.nl to the news that the VVD is now also embracing a higher minimum wage.
“We have been working on this for a long time. In recent years you saw that it was going well economically. Companies made profits, but employees hardly benefited.
Many corporate profits will have evaporated due to the corona crisis, but Marijnissen only sees this as an additional argument that a higher minimum wage is needed. “We now call many low-paid jobs crucial. Look at employees in the distribution centers, cleaning and some parts of the care sector.”
Moreover, says the SP leader, the taxpayer ultimately pays for the low wages, because those employees have to reach a subsistence level through benefits.
The Central Planning Bureau (CPB) has already calculated that a higher minimum wage has a less negative effect than initially thought.
SP, GroenLinks and PvdA argue for 14 euros
The SP, GroenLinks and PvdA argue for a minimum wage of 14 euros per hour. The amount is now about 10 euros, depending on your contract.
In September, the SP announced to include the increase in the minimum hourly wage to 14 euros in a bill.
The PvdA has done this before. When that bill was discussed in the Lower House this autumn, there was a lot of praise for the idea, but VVD and CDA found the timing in the middle of the corona crisis unfortunate to say the least.
GroenLinks and PvdA have announced that they in any case do not want to sit without each other in the next cabinet. As far as Marijnissen is concerned, the SP agrees. “You now see that there is room for our political ideas. We must form a left bloc.”
VVD does not want to allow benefits to rise
Although there is now broad agreement for a higher minimum wage, the parties do differ in opinion.
D66 and CDA are talking about an increase of 10 percent, then you end up with a lower amount than 14 euros. The VVD does not mention amounts or percentages.
Another important difference is whether the benefits increase. The three left-wing parties want this, D66 partly and the VVD clearly does not want this, with the exception of the AOW and disability benefits.
These six parties now have a large majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Even if you look at the most conservative estimate in the polls, that is the case.
