[ls-lah_33]

> Many companies don't have sufficient margins to raise wages.

Not too sure how you came to that conclusion. Profit margins for many companies in the UK seem to have actually gone up [1]. You probably assume that companies are subject to perfect competition. That might be true for small businesses but is not really the case for large firms [2]. Some large firms practically are the market and can get away with employing few people for low wages. It's similar to a monopoly that is incentivised to sell few goods at high prices.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-antitrust-idUSKBN...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopsony