Living wage will threaten future of pubs says Wetherspoon boss

A national living wage will unfairly effect pubs, threatening their future.

That’s according to the Founder and Chairman of JD Wetherspoon, Tim Martin, who claims that George Osborne’s announcement of a living wage would widen the “financial disparity between pubs and supermarkets”.

“The recent government announcement regarding the ‘living wage’ adds considerable uncertainty to future financial projections in the pub industry.

“The average price of a pint in a supermarket is less than £1 and we estimate staff costs to be around 10% or 10p. In contrast, a pint in a pub costs around £3 and staff costs are about 25% or 75p.