Employing someone on the minimum wage now costs a business £28,309 a year. Ten years ago it was £14,940. Over the same decade, prices rose 41%.

Matt leads episode 93, and it starts with a morning that fell apart. Charlie is five people down from a small team, holidays, sickness and a parents' evening all landing at once, and he's loading the van himself. Matt makes the case for more people on fewer hours, and they get into Swiss army knives versus defined roles, and why a relaxed leave policy suits the business you were but not the one you want to be.

From there it's a Telegraph piece on a 150-year-old New Forest business fighting to survive, and whether that's down to policy or standing still. Charlie blames business rates and city-centre parking. Matt answers with a tale of two butchers.

Then the numbers. The UK tax take, 33.1% of GDP before the pandemic and forecast by the OBR to reach around 38% by the end of the decade. Matt builds the full cost of a minimum wage employee, 2016 against 2026, wages, employer's National Insurance and pension, and sets it against CPI. Charlie says young people deserve good pay, but it has to be relative. Matt goes further, and his reason starts with his first job carrying plates in an Italian restaurant.

📊 A minimum wage employee cost £14,940 in 2016 and £28,309 in 2026, up 90% while CPI rose 41%

🧠 Your leave policy suits the business you were, not the one you want to be

👥 More people on fewer hours beats a tight team on 50-hour weeks

🎯 When times are good, run the business as if they're not

⚖️ When an entry-level hire costs nearly as much as an experienced one, young people lose the first rung

(00:00) Charlie's spat his dummy out

(00:40) Five people down in one morning

(02:37) Annual leave and the business you want to be

(04:20) More people, fewer hours each

(07:02) Labour cost on a knife edge

(08:32) Finding another Swiss army knife

(11:41) Job descriptions and the catch-all clause

(13:55) Getting the owner off the van

(15:40) Are small businesses becoming unviable?

(20:04) Is the high street really dead?

(22:03) A tale of two butchers

(25:09) Episode 93 and the British Business Fact of the Week

(29:01) The government as the biggest shareholder

(30:59) 150k before you've sold a thing

(34:01) Ten years of employment costs vs inflation

(38:12) Why young people lose out

(43:04) Businesses are educators

(46:32) Apprenticeships: have you ever hired one?

(50:25) Win of the Week

(57:24) Claude's Question of the Week

(59:07) What should the country do?

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