To feel a bit upset I won't be getting the new National Living Wage?

[DieSchottin93]

This new National Living Wage will come into effect this Friday. However, it only applies to those aged 25 and over, and because I'm only in my early 20s I don't qualify for it. I'll be stuck in my shitty minimum wage retail job for the foreseeable future until my luck changes. Only two people at work will be getting a pay rise as a result of this National Living Wage - the big bosses decided not to increase the supervisor/manager wages accordingly because they don't value their staff , which means the supervisors at my work will only be getting £1 more than new NLW . For all the extra responsibilities involved in their role I think that's pretty insulting.

I just feel that whichever government people thought this up didn't think it through very well. Personally I think it should apply to those aged 21 and over - think of the age of a very large number of graduates, who've gone to uni at 18 and thus are 21/22 upon graduation. I have more responsibilities than one of my colleagues who will be entitled to this pay rise, yet because of when I was born I'll be paid less for it . AIBU to think this is just a tad unfair?

[Ginkypig]

I agree

I was paid well below some of the older staff because I was 16/17 and they were a couple of years older even though I had a house to run (after being homeless) and most of them lived at home!

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

The budget before last was a complete, total and utter kick in the face for younger people. I'm really sorry - it is really unfair and there's no justification for it.

[eightbluebirds]

YANBU. Me and my colleague do the same job at the same standard. She is older than me and will be paid more than more. She lives rent free with her parents. I'm paying bills, rent, childcare, looking after my own home and child. Sucks.

[alltouchedout]

TBH I think it should apply to anyone doing a paid job, regardless of age. You can see how insane it is that a 26 year old doing the exact same job as a 24 year old is entitled to a higher wage- surely in that case you can see how ridiculous it would be for a 22 year old to get paid more than 20 year old for the same work?

I have never understood why different ages were entitled to different minimum wages. It's not like rents and bills and groceries are discounted for younger people. It's daft.

[Charlesroi]

I think the NMW (I refuse to call it a living wage - it isn't) should be paid regardless of age. Do a good job, you get paid money, is the only fair way in my mind. I think a lot of places are going to have a problem with erosion of differentials between the troops and supervisors. Who is going to want the added stress and hassle for an extra few quid a week?

I'll declare an interest here as I think a friend is about to get stitched up with a night shift and team leader allowance. Or lack thereof.

[RabbitSaysWoof]

Wouldn't someone with a lot of responsibility be on more than the living wage anyway? Tbh I worry that it will make over 25's less attractive candidates for nmw positions.

[CurlyBlueberry]

I don't think we should have different 'bands' of minimum wage at all.

[Palomb]

It is inexcusable that young people are paid less the slightly older people for DOING THE SAME JOB!

What a kick in the teeth.

[kipperydippery]

I totally sympathise. It is completely immoral that my colleagues doing the same job as me get paid less because of their age. If it was an older worker, or a woman, getting paid less, because of who they were people would be really upset.

If I am totally honest, my 24 year old colleagues are much better at moving heavy crates of chilled food up flights of stairs than I am aged 40. The fact they are paid less is a total travesty.

YADDDNBU

[MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic]

Come and work for IKEA - they're paying it to all hourly paid workers regardless of age (£8.25 outside London/£9.40 inside) I've never understood why companies differentiate pay based on age when people are doing exactly the same job.

[needmorespace]

I think one of the problems is that the minimum wage has become 'the' wage which everyone is on. One might expect staff in senior position to be paid accordingly but the problem is with stingy employers not wanting to pay appropriately so they end up on slightly more than the minimum wage. The introduction of the new minimum wage this week will quite probably mean that those in less senior positions that are older will be paid more.

[gamerchick]

Yeah ikea is fab for pay as is aldi.

I'd like a pound more though, I was put up to supervisor last month and I get an extra 30p which hasn't even gone through yet for more work

[StatisticallyChallenged]

To be fair its not always a case of employers not valuing their staff or being stingy. The minimum wage increase is quite big proportionately and way above inflation and for some businesses is more than they could reasonably pass on to our customers.

We pay all staff at the same grade the same regardless of age, and we paid all staff more than minimum wage and more than the typical market rate here - I'm talking an entry level role generally done by younger people so many are earning quite a bit less than our staff. We're putting their wage up to be the same amount over minimum wage as they were before. But we're a new business and we can't afford to increase the wages of all of our higher grade staff by a corresponding percentage. The money isn't there yet, and the customers would be very reluctant to swallow a fee hike. It's a business which should grow year on year but we worked out initial running costs and made the decision to open based on one set of figures and our cost base is very salary driven. Doesn't mean we are stingy or don't value our staff

[DieSchottin93]

StatisticallyChallenged I totally understand if you're a new business and at least everyone in the same grade gets the same pay, but the supermarket chain I work for is hardly new (founded in the 19th century!!!) and they are reducing our hours as well - so if one member of staff leaves, we won't be able to get anyone to replace them. I don't fancy having to work even more hours than I do now on £6.70 an hour just because they're trying to cut costs in as many places as possible, to the detriment of staff morale.

[Thegirlinthefireplace]

Yanbu at all. The age limit is offensive and is generally a pis stake anyway (ie the idea that it is actually a "living wage")

[BlackeyedSusan]

because the under 25's should be living at "home" ie parents or in a bedsit/shared house.

should be same pay for same work.

[BackforGood]

StatisticallyChallenged's point carries over into all businesses though.

There's been more than a bit of upset on here about how people's Nursery Fees are going up. However, if the Nursery's wage bill is going up 20% ish, then the owners still have to balance the books. No business can lose money each week/month and survive - the costs have to be passed on to the customers.

What I'd like to see is some kind of a link between the highest and lowest paid in any company...... maybe that no-one is allowed to be paid more than 10x (?) 20x (?) the lowest paid employee. That would give the chief executives something to think about when negotiating their contracts.

[ClarenceTheLion]

My DS was called into a meeting and was told that because of the new minimum wage (I refuse to call it a Living Wage because it's not a wage you can live on without another wage coming in or claiming WTCs) they will no longer be paying night shift workers a higher hourly rate. It'll backfire because they find it hard to recruit night workers as it is.

[ClarenceTheLion]

Forgot to finish my post! The upshot is that while the day shop workers will be getting a wage increase, the night workers will see a wage decrease. It's unfair.

[HelenaDove]

Clarence Night workers should be getting their own seperate higher wage anyway and i mean ALL night workers.

Night workers are more likely to have to fork out for taxis at more expensive times if working odd shifts.
More likely to get woken up mid morning by some inconsiderate cunt with an angle grinder or wood chipper!

More likely to have to sit up all day after having worked all night waiting in for a gas safety check because the landlord wont specify a time or will only do them between 9 and 5.pm. and then the engineer doesnt turn up so you have to do it AGAIN Its because of shit like this that night workers should be paid extra.

I used to work nights 15 years ago so i know what its like We were paid the same as the days but £6 an hour was worth more back then,

[Out2pasture]

the difference between twenty and twenty-five is five years. the "foreseeable future" comment is a bit dramatic.
keep looking, keep your resume current and be prepared to change jobs if someone offers you a bit more.

[LizKeen]

When this was announced it was intended to be paid for out of the profit margins. The theory was that the government was done massaging profits through tax credits.

From everything I have heard, and am experiencing through DHs workplace, businesses are doing everything to protect their profit margins, and it is still the joe public getting shafted.

11 people were laid off last week in DHs work. It is looking like he is going to take a pay cut. The supervisors aren't being moved up. The company is pleading poverty, but their accounts are 20% up on last year.

I think that the government needs to reiterate the purpose of this, and monitor it somehow, but they won't. They want to be seen to be doing something, without actually pissing off big business.

I have never agreed with age brackets in pay. But now I feel at a disadvantage were I to apply for a job, as they could hire someone younger, and therefore cheaper.

[Baconyum]

Yadnbu! It hits the young by insulting them and giving them less money and hits older people in low paid jobs by making them less 'employable'.

If you're doing the same job and earning the same money for your boss you should get the same wage.

Nights being different for the reasons Helena stated and more. Nights screen with your bodies sleep, digestive and immune systems and people who work nights long term are more likely to retire younger due to ill health and are more likely to be ill.

Statisticallychallenged I also think it's not a living wage but a minimum wage, if someone starts a business without allowing for government changes to the min wage or even better being prepared to give employees a proper living wage for the work they do they shouldn't be in business. And I speak as someone who was a bookkeeper for small businesses for some time and never met a business owner yet even when just starting out who wasn't doing very nicely themselves, nice house car holidays etc.

If the government (and I'm not being partisan here) had the balls to ignore the business community on this one issue and set a real living wage, as in enough to live on without tax credits or other government help, all employees would have more disposable income, would spend more and this would lead to the economy recovering, protectionism has been proven repeatedly not to work.

[Baconyum]

*screw not screen

[madein1995]

YANBU. The 'bands' of pay really piss me off. I work as a student ambassador (casual work) and have exactly the same responsibility and job as other ambassadors. Yet I am paid less than my friend who is 8 months older than me because she is 21 and I am 20. We do exactly the same job, have the same outgoings, and anyway regardless of outgoings you should get paid the same if you do the same jobs. In fact I might have more responsibility as I'm better at dealing with the more challenging little shits teenagers we work with so am often in charge of 7/8 boisterous teenage boys while others get 4 or 5 easy going kids - I often have a tougher time of it but get paid less/

If the government are basing it on '16-21 year olds don't have so many outgoings,' then surely they should reduce pay for people who have paid off their mortgages? Or don't have children? They have less outgoings, don't they? But of course they won't do that because they'd be so unpopular. Nothing wrong with shafting the young though, I see. 20 year olds have to have accommodation, same as 25 year olds. They have to eat, travel to work, some have children to provide for etc etc, and the band system is bloody ridiculous. It is discrimination. If someone got paid less than a colleague doing the same role because they were female/black/ginger/homosexual/disabled whatever then equality laws would come down on them like a ton of bricks. Because it's age however, it doesn't seem to matter.

This isn't meant to be a self pitying moan, I have no problem accepting more responsibility or having the challenging kids - I'm good at it and actually enjoy it. But I'm a bloody hard worker and it is so frustrating to be paid less because of my age, despite the fact that I am as good as the next person at what I do.