Ah DtG the "Government" has to dictate what the wages have to be, then the employer simply has to live with it, irrespective of what happens to his business as a result of complying with "Government" diktat? The natural defence against this is you either outsource abroad or you severely restrict the number of people you employ because under the circumstances you describe that is the only way you can keep control of your labour costs.

Absolute scaremongering rubbish. We heard all this kind of bleating when the minimum wage (opposed by the Tories, of course) was being brought in, and none of this happened. As you are so fond of history and historians, perhaps it's about time you learned from it for once.