NICE policy, but can we afford it?

That's the response we often hear to any proposal for investing in public services or closing the wealth gap.

It's funny that it so rarely crops up as an objection to the behaviour of the wealthiest in society.

We've been hearing it a lot as Greens have promoted our policy of raising the Minimum Wage of £6.50 to £10 an hour by the year 2020.

Labour by contrast are proposing just £8 an hour by the same year, which is just pennies above the level the Living Wage stands at today.

I find it breathtaking that some political parties, whose MPs think £67,000 isn't enough and tout themselves out for second and third jobs, don't accept that other people should be able to expect a decent liveable income for the work they do.

There are some business voices claiming that decent wages are unaffordable.

When this argument comes from multi-nationals, many of which pay their CEOs eye-watering sums and exploit every tax loophole they can find, I have no sympathy whatsoever.

But when small independent businesses say that £10 an hour would be hard for them to afford I always try to point out that it's not just a cost - it means that more of their customers will have a few spare pounds in their pockets.

Closing the wealth gap will mean spending in the local economy increases.

Getting rid of the low pay culture in this country would help to end the advantages which multinationals enjoy.

There have always been those who reject legal protection against poverty pay.

We heard the same arguments when the minimum wage was introduced 16 years ago.

Back then the likes of the Economist and the CBI warned that it would "destroy jobs".

These predictions simply didn't come true.

Looking across Europe, countries with the lowest wages tend to have higher unemployment.

Two of the highest minimum wage economies in the EU, Belgium and Holland, have two of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU.

Many of those most resistant to the idea of a decent minimum wage are also those most committed to austerity in general.

Recently when one of our candidates made the case for the policy, the Labour candidate replied by saying "we have to live within our means."

It's exactly this acceptance of miserly economics that is leaving so many people seeing no economic recovery in their own lives.

We know the impact that low pay has.

It affects our children's education, our public health, and the safety of our neighbourhoods.

The real question we face isn't how do we pay for a higher living wage; it's can we afford not to?