About half of British workers earn under £15 hour - new Living Wage?

People are going hungry out there the price of everything is ridiculous now.

Mumsnet is amazing.

Working people are struggling- shouldn’t NMW be raised?
mumsnetters: absolutely not. Inflationary spiral! Costs passed on! No incentive to be a nurse! (?!)

Working people are struggling- should uc/ in-work benefits be extended?
mumsnetters: Absolutely not. No incentive to work! People reliant on benefits! Country can’t afford scroungers etc etc etc

Alright then lads. What IS the answer? Shall the working class just fucking rot then?

what are you paid per hour op@Melisha

Trouble is that those people would then be in a position to a) demand more money to keep them earning so much more than everyone else and b) would be in positions in work to put prices up of the things they sell/provide/etc because 'they can afford it' - same way that childcare costs go up the moment there's an increase in childcare funding, rents go up when there's an increase in wages, food goes up when people have more income to buy food with...

It just resets the skint barrier another couple of quid higher.

There is huge inequality of wages but one CEO losing millions would not cover the "worker ants" on NMW getting a huge increase. Inequality SHOULD be addressed but don't think it will free up enough to compensate more than a tiny increase in the wage of the many.

Service industries will die or prices will increase massively to access them in the NMW increases. Starting salaries may increase but then there will be no rise until you have many years of experience and it makes adding responsibility to a role difficult and costly.

You need to consider the wider economy when suggesting economic strategy changes not just "oh, it'll be nicer for nurses starting out"

In good news, Labour are an advocate for the NMW and Rachel Reeves appears to have a handle on what's needed - let's hope she does in reality too. I'm sure if there is scope for an increase it will be on her agenda.

Inflation though. As soon as you start paying everyone minimum wage, costs go up obviously and so then do prices ....

A PP was right. It's the large wage gap - inequality - that beeds addressing. When the gap us smaller between rich and poor the economy works well and people are happier.

When were wages higher?

UC encourages work far more than tax credits did as there is no big "drop off" in benefits like there was with tax credits, also you only had to work 16 hours with tax credits and with UC it's more. I'm a long term claimant who has been on both systems and I much prefer UC, the more I work the better off I am too.

I am paid less than that for working in a library. Raising our hourly rate would mean even more incentive to cut jobs and make all libraries unmanned which is the way it's moving anyway. Every day we get people quibbling their 30p fine so I don't think anyone wants to pay for more for keeping essential services.

So why wasn’t cost an issue when wages were higher?

We had inflation jump to over 10% on low wages 🤷‍♀️ You can’t have it both ways

The issues isnt wages in this country, its housing/fuel/transport costs

Those are the costs that need government intervention, not wages.

just wrote a huge post and lost it, along with the will to write it all again.
in simple terms it increases the cost of everything and achieves fuck all.
many businesses would not afford any employees and many more would close their doors permanently.
the sad thing at the moment is many people are sitting on benefits as it isn't worth their while to work. If the government looked back to original tax credits to top up low earnings and encourage people to work it would help.
They've ruined the tax credits system and it's at best shambolic now.

Where are you getting your information from?

I think the difference is pensions and progression isn’t it really? No barista is going to be getting a nurses or doctors pension or bens.

That's what pisses me off a lot about this group. There seems to be so much job snobbery and contempt for anyone who doesn't at least work in an office. Someone posted in another thread about how you're a failure if you are still on low wages if you're in your 30s upwards. Even being unemployed is seen as a better choice.

That's what pisses me off a lot about this group. There seems to be so much job snobbery and contempt for anyone who doesn't at least work in an office. Someone posted in another thread about how you're a failure if you are still on low wages if you're in your 30s upwards. Even being unemployed is seen as a better choice.

Two words:
Inflationary Spiral

A lot of people are employees of small self employed businesses.
There are 4 million self employed people who employ staff, average self employed wages/profits are 36,000 a year.

If the wages they pay to employees go up £10,000 a year where do you think it’s coming from?? From the wages of the self employed owner.
I certainly wouldn’t be able to run my small retail business anymore. If every small business employs around 2 people then it affects 8 million employees and would be catastrophic.

Based on what?
Is £15 just an arbitrary figure ?

You could just have easily written the same post with £150 per hour (and more people). What's the justification for that figure?

I support people with autism and have endless trainings, experience, responsibilities, qualifications related to my role. My work is physically and mentally risky, staff are regularly assaulted and injured or reach the limits of emotional resilience. We get paid around the minimum wage. Although I love what I do, I feel so used by the company and society. There is so little financial respect for what we do.

👏👏👏👏

Steady on OP! If those on a low wage get an increase to £15 per hour they may edge towards being able to save for a house deposit so that they can buy instead of renting.

They would, of course then pay less pcm on a mortgage than on rent, but what about all the landorrds who rely on rental income to maintain their lifestyle and pay off their mortgages?

On a more serious note I despise people who won't acknowledge the brutal unfairness of a set up where the lowest earners can't buy a home and instead pay a higher monthly payment to rent than they would on a mortgage. All whilst working their asses off doing a valuable job and pouring most of their income into renting and lining the pocket of someone else. Ugh.

I Was a doctor on less than that for nights and weekends.
unless all wages rise fairly then no I don’t think it should rise.

our nurses should not be paid the same as the Costa barista.