Do high marginal income tax rates discourage full time skilled labour participation in the workforce?

T McGibney said:
Schools are in the business of education, not of child minding.
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then why don't they educate during the school term instead of taking days off for "training" . Shops don't close in the run into Christmas to train their staff, Ryanair don't shut down in July for training yet schools think it is perfectly acceptable to do so when they should be open
 
Peanuts20 said:
And yet, the OECD has us below the average for marginal tax rates.
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We have an average tax wedge because low and average earners are very under taxed by international standards but marginal tax rates at and above average incomes are very high.
Peanuts20 said:
For anyone I know who has returned to the workplace after having children, the tax rate is not the key issue. It's a host of other factors
  • the cost of child minding as you called out,
  • the inflexibility of the school system ("training days" for teachers during the school term as an example"),
  • the inability, in many cases, to live close to where you work, look at the rush hour into Dublin or Cork
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Yep, high Capital prices have a serious knock-on impact on the cost of living.
 
T McGibney said:
Schools are in the business of education, not of child minding.
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Not really. If they were in the business of educating children they would have a shorter school day and a longer school year. Their primary function is keeping teachers happy (or at least trying to as actually keeping them happy is impossible).
 
T McGibney said:
The carbon tax is infinitely worse. As bad as they are, at least alcohol price hikes don't directly drive up the prices of everything else.
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The carbon tax increase accounted for about 3% of the increased diesel cost over the last 12 months. Even if you attributed the increased cost of diesel for all of the last 12 months' inflation, the carbon tax would only account for 0.21% of the 7% 12 month's inflation. Realistically the figure is a fraction of that because fuel didn't account for the full 7% inflation, rents, mortgage interests, hotels, communications, alcohol all contributed.

Alcohol price inflation accounted for about 0.5% of the total 7% inflation of the last 12 months.

Minimum unit pricing impacted inflation significantly more than the carbon tax.
 
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Peanuts20 said:
then why don't they educate during the school term instead of taking days off for "training" . Shops don't close in the run into Christmas to train their staff, Ryanair don't shut down in July for training yet schools think it is perfectly acceptable to do so when they should be open
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Maybe because the school term is long enough for children as it is? A large proportion of Ryanair routes are seasonal so that's a poor analogy.
 
Zenith63 said:
The carbon tax accounted for about 3% of the increased diesel cost over the last 12 months.
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You mean the increase in the carbon tax? My rough calculations suggest that the current carbon tax on diesel is circa 14 cent a litre. There's no doubt that's having a major effect on inflation. Had it been dropped in recent months when it became obvious that the Ukraine crisis was making it superfluous, this would have taken the sting out of the fuel price surge.
 
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T McGibney said:
You mean the increase in the carbon tax? My rough calculations suggest that the current carbon tax on diesel is circa 14 cent a litre. There's no doubt that's having a major effect on inflation. Had it been dropped in recent months when it became obvious that the Ukraine crisis was making it superfluous, this would have taken the sting out of the fuel price surge.
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Yes thanks I’ve corrected that

I agree that removing the carbon tax would have taken some of the sting out of the price of fuel (though 45c vs 60c per litre is gonna sting either way) and I agree it has caused inflation, I’m just countering the assertion that it was infinitely worse than minimum unit pricing, which itself was apparently a huge inflationary own goal by the government.

We can maybe argue that more than just the most recent carbon tax increase should be considered, but 50% of the carbon tax happened 10 years ago, surely that cannot be blamed in the last 12 months’ inflation?
 
Zenith63 said:
Yes thanks I’ve corrected that

I agree that removing the carbon tax would have taken some of the sting out of the price of fuel (though 45c vs 60c per litre is gonna sting either way) and I agree it has caused inflation, I’m just countering the assertion that it was infinitely worse than minimum unit pricing, which itself was apparently a huge inflationary own goal by the government.

We can maybe argue that more than just the most recent carbon tax increase should be considered, but 50% of the carbon tax happened 10 years ago, surely that cannot be blamed in the last 12 months’ inflation?
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I think there's a subtle difference between what our arguments are about. You're arguing, correctly, that MUP has contributed more than carbon tax to the inflation rate. I'm arguing that carbon tax has hit most people harder in the pocket than MUP has. A lot harder.
 
joe sod said:
The biggest own goal the government made regarding inflation was introducing minimum unit pricing in January , their timing couldn't have been worse and they admitted that this measure alone contributed significantly to the inflation rate in the first quarter.
Even if they couldn't withstand the pressure from specisl interest groups to introduce it they could of at least moderated the minimum unit price that it was set at, 75c rather than 100c per 100g of alcohol would have been tolerable
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I'd totally disagree. It only affected the very cheap drink that supermarkets used as loss making price promotions - some were sold for less than the Duty (+vat). And the point is probably off topic anyway

It was a scourge in society as anti social behaviour was getting worse and worse and it was leading to huge alcohol issues in young people.

those who now have alcohol issues may never recover, so it may not help them, but it will prevent many people become addicts in the future.

the difference it made in the inflation figures was negligible as promotional prices are rarely included due to the short term nature of the promotions.
 
peemac said:
I'd totally disagree. It only affected the very cheap drink that supermarkets used as loss making price promotions - some were sold for less than the Duty (+vat). And the point is probably off topic anyway
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Its not off topic as it was a response to the high rates of tax in Ireland and another post about high taxation contributing to inflation. The government has themselves owned up that the MUP was a significant factor in the high rates of inflation since the start of the year.

As for the propaganda that MUP was only to raise the price of the cheapest nastiest beers , thats also false as the main brands like Carlsberg, Heineken , Guinness have risen by 50 to 60% in price, these are mainstream brands not "Dutch Gold". To try and suggest that Guinness is a cheap nasty drink doesn't stand up
 
Purple said:
No, have you ever met a child who formed opinions based on a holistic view on their own medium long best interests???
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Have you ever met an older student who formed opinions based on a holistic view on their own medium long best interests???
 
T McGibney said:
Have you ever met an older student who formed opinions based on a holistic view on their own medium long best interests???
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Very few. That further undermines your point. What's best for students is shorter school days and a longer school year. Our current system suits the needs and wants of teachers, not students.
 
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