Wages are a bit like sex – everyone gets some but hardly anyone wants to reveal just how much.

They worry they get less than their colleagues. Or, perhaps, if they’re lucky, more.

How many of us have seen someone in an office let slip how much they take home each month and the ripples it creates – they often turn into tsunamis; fragile office eco-systems turned on their head in an instant.

Yet in a world where order is so craved by so many, pay structures are so often off-kilter. From the inexplicable disgrace of women receiving less than men in so many cases, to ‘in-desperation’ hires meaning the newcomer to the office is enjoying a considerably higher chunk of cash than their colleagues. It’s all rather topsy-turvy.

It’s no easy balancing act for employers either – traditionally salaries are their biggest monthly expenditure.

But spare a thought to the youngsters; our next generation of workers.

Hospitality around the county often relies on young, eager faces to act as their front-of-house staff – or help out with the grunt work around the back.

They’re often in demanding roles in an industry buffeted by countless economic pressures.

And in exchange? Well, if they’re under 18 then the minimum wage – which so many will be on – repays them, at the point of writing, with a miserly £5.28 an hour. That is almost half of what those aged 21-22 receive (£10.18 – albeit about to go up next month to the improved National Living Wage of £11.44).

The same £5.28 applies to first-year apprentices or those under 19. Yes, it’s great they’re being given the opportunity to learn the skills of a trade – but it’s not very much is it?

It’s hard to justify and anyone who has seen their kids or grandchildren toil away in a busy restaurant or cafe, to go back to the hospitality sector, will ponder how long they could hack a six-hour shift for the paltry sum of £31.68.

You can explain to them that it’s good for them – character-building stuff – and will look good on their CV. But that butters none of their proverbial parsnips. And understandably.

Yes, they have little financial commitments at that age, but it doesn’t paint the most enticing picture of the workplace does it?

I say all this because apparently there’s been a backlash by many smaller hospitality businesses at the rise next month in the National Living Wage and its extension to 21-year-olds.

They describe the hike as a potential ‘killer’ to their operations.

But here is a message to them all; your staff are your business. You expect a competent, polished performance from them. All they ask is to be paid a sensible amount in return.