Forum User: Employer Claims Inability to Afford Minimum Wage While Buying Porsche

A Forum User Describes His Employer: 'Cut the SMI' and a Porsche Cayenne

In the debate, one narrative is repeated: a forum user asserts that his employer warns that removing the SMI (minimum wage) would prevent closures, while simultaneously purchasing a Porsche Cayenne. This is not the only episode cited. Throughout the discussion, similar cases are mentioned: workforces asked to accept pay cuts to save the company, wages delayed by months, and, in parallel, high-end cars and family holidays. The underlying question posed by some participants is not whether someone can afford a sports car, but whether the argument that there is 'no money' to pay the minimum wage holds up to comparison.

An SMI of €2,500 and the Threat of Closure

One of the demands in the thread is to immediately raise the SMI to €2,500, referencing what is supposedly paid 'in the rest of the continent,' according to a circulating calculation. That participant's corollary is absolute: if the business cannot sustain it, it should close down. In contrast, another contributor cites around 20 million employees and argues that not everyone can become self-employed or set up their own cooperative. The clash between these two figures is the core of the matter.

The Chain Reaction Cost: From Paycheck to Daily Menu

One participant maps out a chain reaction against the increase: a €2,500 wage for a waiter increases his contribution costs; the daily menu price rises; the new purchasing power pushes up housing prices—with little new construction—and supermarket purchases also become more expensive, because the salaries of those who replace them are higher. The result, he maintains, would be a stalemate: more is charged, but everything costs more. The rebuttal arrives with sarcasm: that reasoning belongs to someone 'stuck in 2004.'

Assuming Personal Capital: The Other Side of the Argument

The defender of the entrepreneur speaks not of luxury, but of risk. They argue that starting a business involves risking one's own money and assets—winning greatly or losing greatly—while the worker is paid 'faithfully,' even if the business struggles. Hence, the recurring prescription: becoming self-employed, or setting up a company or cooperative among several individuals. One example circulating in the first person points in this direction: an engineer who threatened to leave a site unless his salary was increased moved from being on-site manager to salaried engineer, with an increase of 35% and up to 100% counting overtime.

Unpaid Wages, Cruises, and Flight to Switzerland

Testimonies critical of the business narrative are also cited. An employee owed multiple paychecks discovered his boss on vacation in the Algarve. Another recounts how, during a crisis, they were asked to take pay cuts to avoid layoffs; they complied, and then came the layoffs, a Porsche, and a yacht. A third speaks of a company that cut €200 from qualified staff while the owner's son drove a nicer car than theirs. And facing this, there is emigration: in Switzerland, a cook's assistant position offers €2,400 net, €350 for accommodation, €250 for insurance, and about €17,000 in savings per year.

The matter stalls right here. Some, like the forum user of the Porsche, see the car as proof that money exists. Others, like those defending the entrepreneur, recall that a business can fail and see in this failure a reason not to raise salaries. Neither image explains why, in the cited case, the staff accepted pay cuts and layoffs arrived anyway.