Curry's and Domino's pizza - stop moaning about having to pay your fair share

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Am I alone in getting fed up with hearing companies bleat about having to pay their way?

Ever since the budget details were announced in October, there has been handwringing and wailing from the business world, usually expressed in a warning about “headwinds” coming this way in 2025. And these headwinds? A rise in employers’ National Insurance contributions and the minimum wage going up. Now, I’m no business tycoon, but I find it hard to shed any tears here.

First of all - a rise in National Insurance. That’s money that will go to the government and be spent on the country - or on paying off the debts that have mounted since Covid. Paying tax should be seen as one of the most patriotic things you can do - and yep, those who avoid it can been seen as traitors - so it should be a badge of honour to contribute more to the land in which you make your millions.

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Secondly, the minimum wage rise. One of the astonishing features of modern life has been that some working people still need to claim Universal Credit. And when we say some, actually we mean 2.4m. Or, put another way, 38 per cent of all people on UC. So wages have been depressed to such an extent that state support is still needed to help people get by, even if they are working. I’m more than happy for my taxes to be used to help those who need it, but less so if the money is making up the gap that should be filled by wages. That’s a fundamental wrecking of the labour and capital arrangement that has underpinned society for decades.

So, who’s moaning? Earlier this week Domino’s pizza identified £3m extra on their bill next year, with what their franchise association chairman called a “backdrop of significant and unexpected tax increases”. Just for context, in the first half of the year the UK arm made £59.4m before tax. Unveiling its chief executive Andrew Rennie last year, the company said his base salary was to be £775,000 a year with an annual bonus of up to 150% of that (up to £1.15m, basically). I think they’ll live.

And then on Thursday electronic chain Curry’s said £32m in extra costs were coming, which would mean higher prices, and would also “depress investment and hiring” plans. Currys predicts £21 million in extra National Insurance and minimum wage costs, and a further £9m passed through from partner businesses and an extra £2m in business rates costs.

Curry’s group chief executive Alex Baldock - here comes that word again - called the higher rates “new and unwelcome headwinds from UK government policy” but simultaneously said that the group would grow its profits. And in that sentence alone you have why business can’t be trusted too much. Firms have been asked to contribute more and pay their staff better - after two years of inflation rises that have hit all but the very rich - and they moan. Even if they think they will increase their profits.

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Would it be churlish to bring up a story from earlier this year, which covered how Curry’s shareholders voted against the firm’s pay scheme? Perhaps, but churls are sometimes the best people. That incident revealed that Mr Baldock received a £1m salary, with a £1.2m bonus on top. We all know how some of the minimum wage increase could be funded, don’t we?

And, let’s not forget that in February Curry’s was also named by the government as one of the many employers who had failed to pay the national minimum wage to its staff. It ordered that 4,109 people were given what they were due. An oversight that may have been, but it sits not well with moaning about rate increases.

I don’t blame businesses for moaning about having to pay more taxes. If their job is to make profits, then obviously they will chafe against anything that holds that back. But don’t listen to them as the oracles of good sense. Don’t believe that their version is the only truth. And don’t be suckered into thinking that doom lies ahead when they will continue to be laughing all the way to the bank.

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