There can be no such thing as a living wage that is also a minimum wage because of the effect it has on demand increasing inflation . Even a soft living wage like the Tories have proposed is dangerously inflationary and all it does is make average earners income comparatively less as those whose income is below them see theirs increase . But as increased demand from increased money for lower earners pushes up costs it leaves no one better off in real terms after a relatively short amount of time as inflation kicks in and all that we are left with is more people earning closer to the minimum wage than we had before with comparatively higher prices nearly everywhere the lowest earners spend their money .