NMW to increase again next year to £12.21 ph.

Thing is all the same arguments against better wages or conditions have been trotted out over the decades.

Reducing the working week from 60 hours and gaining a weekend was going to be the downfall of the country when a 40 hour working week was introduced.

The last 4 years have seen wages at the bottom rise, now if those earning a pittance for a skilled job don't like it they need to protest

Tesco had £3bn in profit last ear but the workers earn NMW whilst the CEO has a million £ package

So, Blanketyre and BinkyBeaufort, the success and longevity of your businesses relies on you being able to pay your staff the absolute minimum?

Maybe Blanketyre should listen to their own advice - if paying your employees an extra 77p an hour is going to cause you issues, you're not striving hard enough to better yourself and your business.

'you want even more per hour then work yo gain qualifications and apply for another job. You surely can't expect the tax payer to subsidise you to the point you can live as comfortably as someone with a highly qualified profession?'

Forgetting, of course, that the taxpayer is also generously subsidising businesses who pay their workers a wage that is too low to live on.

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This!

Yes I think thd extortionate profits of huge businesses should be addressed. I'm sure increasing NMW for their staff is slso correct.

I disagree on some points. I think profiteering by supermarkets is obscure.

"The UK's largest supermarket chain reported a 159% increase in pre-tax profits for the year to February 2024, up to £2.29 billion."

A 159% increase in profits. £2.29 BILLION.... now that is obscene. The profits should be taxed more.

Same here except ours has been going for 100 years!

Gottoleave, our business has been viable for over 40 years. Although I suppose it depends what you mean by viable.
It's kept 12 people employed for all that time. Happily too, as most of them have been there for decades, three wanting to stay past retirement age.
It's keeping work in the UK and not abroad, keeping dying manufacturing skills alive, and providing a great service to our customers.
The three directors live modestly, and I deeply resent the constant inference that small company owners are somehow ripping off our employees, who, as I say, we have known, worked with and cared about for decades.
Does the fact that none of us are millionaires make the business unviable? I don't think so.

Perhaps the government should have done that then instead of making suppliers bear the brunt?

@NewstartOct2024 in the farming world the contracts we have now are considered the gold standard. 5 years ago we’d have bitten your hand off for them as the price we were paid then didn’t even reflect our costs. We feel we’ve done fairly well to get where we’re at.

I’m not sure when it comes down to it it’s anyone’s fault, not the supermarkets, not the farmers, not the consumer who chooses
to buy the cheap chicken instead of the British produced one. I think my point is we shouldn’t be blaming any one person or section. We all have a responsibility to do what we can within our spheres of influence. So on our part, we do pay slightly above NMW. When the 9-5 supermarket buyers come tour the farm I make sure they know we and our staff work 50-60 hour weeks and will be working Christmas Day and summer Sunday nights. I do try to buy British where I can but we se ourselves the challenge to live off what we pay our full timers (with one or two exceptions) and can’t always do it.

Then the contracts with the supermarkets need changing. Supermarkets make HUGE profits. The problem isn't with NMW going up the problem is huge businesses underpaying workers to keep profits extremely high and workers relying on benefits to top up income and pay rent!

"The UK's largest supermarket chain reported a 159% increase in pre-tax profits for the year to February 2024, up to £2.29 billion." That's obscene. That's what needs sorting.

What I should have added to my post is that the supermarkets base our wage cost of NMW. That’s for staff who work weekends, till 11pm sometimes. As much as we’d like to we are to a point dictated to what we do.

I keep repeating this on here. We sell food to supermarkets. It’s literally written into our contracts that when our costs go up the price we are paid goes up. You will literally be seeing price rises for staple foods on your shelves in 3 months time.

Absolutely! You've got bigger problems if you can't afford this... its short sited thinking. Especially in the hospitality industry. Paying your waitresses £12ph might seem high, but surely you benefit from more people going out to eat because they can actually afford to?

More posts from people making moral judgements about business in this country while buying stuff from all over the world, including from countries with poor working conditions and ultra low wages.

I wonder if these people pontificating about uk businesses deserving to fail ever consider their own buying habits?

In lots of businesses the employees are paid poorly to maintain profit margins and keep the already wealthy shareholders, wealthy. I’ve seen it so many times. Profits staying high, workers conditions and pay deteriorating. It’s not ok. It’s not civilised.

If your manufacturing industry is an essential part of our infrastructure then there is an argument for state support. If it’s not then that’s just unfettered capitalism and that’s the system we have chosen (that needs to change IMHO) - so if your business can’t survive without pushing it’s workers into poverty then it’s not a viable business.

Why don't you pot wash then?

Also in a similar situation. We put pay up in 2023 above MW to cover what we thought may be an April 24 increase. Little did we know it would be this much. We will increase all wage bands to make sure skills are rewarded. We will also have to pay more in employers NI. Funded hours won't cover this and we will try our hardest not to push this onto parents. Yet again it feels like charity Early Years settings get shafted

Completely agree.

And as StrawberryJ pointed out, there are plenty of highly educated people on minimum wage for myriad reasons. Salary doesn't equate to intelligence.

@Gorgonemilezola Yes
How dare the uneducated, have an opinion!

So much arrogance on this thread. So much condescension.

All those poor, stupid, uneducated people whose extra 77p an hour is going to bankrupt the country.

How about all the paragon-like small businesses who don't pay the tax and VAT they should?

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/09/billions-lost-from-small-retailers-in-tax-evasion-says-watchdog

Even idiots! Well if that makes you feel better to name call.Everyone is entitled to an opinion, yes freedom of expression and speech, l believe, in the UK, regardless to whether you think they’re idiots.

Yeah I haven't got a clue so I don't comment. Reading with interest though as I'm trying to better understand economics.

I wish people would stop assuming that everyone on NMW or slightly above is uneducated or doesn't have a degree.

There are many reasons such as family, health, caring responsibilities that may mean that they work in a job that they are "overqualified" for.