With regard to the article about call centre jobs being shifted abroad (The Argus, April 1),what is not generally appreciated is the tax system is probably the most important cause. Every £1 an employee receives as real purchasing power in his or her pocket costs an employer nearly £2. This gives rise to the apparently impossible combination of low pay and high labour costs. The reality of this state of affairs passes largely unnoticed because of the PAYE system, which gives rise to the illusion that employees pay income tax out of their "gross pay".
But gross pay is just a notional figure and we all know what counts are the goods and services we can actually buy in exchange for work done.
The economic reality is the taxes nominally paid by workers have to be paid by employers and virtually doubles their labour costs. Which is why jobs go to Bangalore and similar places with low labour costs.
It is time to end this expensive and damaging nonsense and to look for other ways to raise the money needed to run the country.
- Henry Law, Queen's Gardens, Brighton
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