WORK should pay.

All the parties are pretty much agreed on that.

What they don't agree on is how much it should pay.

Plenty of discussion has taken place about the Minimum Wage and this week we see employers, large and small, disgracefully not paying the proper rate to their workers.

They have been stealing from their staff, which if it was the other way round the worker would be sacked and facing punishment far worse than the paltry fines dished out.

The National Minimum Wage, which has to be seen as a success of the Labour Government of 1997-2001, is now however not fit for purpose.

If someone works full time they should rightly expect to be paid enough in wages to live on.

They should not have to expect to apply for benefits to make ends meet.

People on the lowest wages don't have to pay income tax because they are below the threshold and many qualify for top up benefits like housing benefit.

This is an affront to the working person's dignity. Most workers want to pay their fair share of tax, unlike some of the companies who employ them who go to great lengths to reduce their tax bill.

The minimum wage is obviously too low, leaving people reliant on the state to eke out the most basic of living standards.

Let's turn this policy around.

We have calls for more employers to pay the Living Wage, but it is voluntary and doesn't exist in statute.

We don't need at two tier system with a National Minimum Wage for some and a higher, more ethical, Living Wage for others, mostly public sector and those on public sector contracts.

That still leaves too many on a wage to low to live on and workers in poverty.

Instead, we should increase the National Minimum Wage for every worker to a level that lifts them out of benefits.

And instead of having workers applying for benefits and made to feel like a burden on the state, the employers can be the ones applying to the government for a subsidy if they if they feel unable to pay the proper wage.

We can set strict criteria to be met in return for payments, like no extravagant bonuses or unjustifiably excessive pay for executives if they are to qualify.

The principle is simple. If you work full time you should be paid enough to earn a living.

A Minimum Wage that doesn't allow this is obviously not effective.

Yes, there will still be a cost to the state in some cases, but it is the employer and not the worker who will have to grapple with the feelings of inadequacy and undergo the means testing for state aid.

Then we can truly say we are making work pay.