&gt; &quot; that&#x27;s why virtually no jobs actually pay the minimum wage.&quot;<p>This may be true in some parts of the world but here in the UK the minimum wage has become a standard wage for all kinds of jobs.<p>This is because we have a tax credit system designed to make up the difference. What&#x27;s happened over time is employers are gaming the system by offering jobs on minimum wage and the minimum number of hours required for the tax credits to kick in.<p>Often the hours offered result in someone working part time but on hours, such as 10 - 3, that make it impossible to get another part time job.<p>Employers that used to pay overtime now employ extra workers instead. So we have a country where unemployment is relatively low but where a lot of people don&#x27;t have any disposable income.<p>Efforts by the current Government to address this problem are , predictably, meeting a lot of resistance.