NMW to rise to £11.44 per hour in April 2024

[MikeRafone]

Good news for those on NMW, as there wages will rise from £10.42 to £11.44

This is a big rise before a general election...

£23,735 according to a post above but also access to UC and other associated benefits, while also having zero responsibilities. UC eligibility stops in the mid 30k somewhere (less if you're a home owner), and typically middle management and newly qualified professionals start at this salary band too.

Your pension entitlement is set in stone though isn't it? And it's not a 'wage increase' so it wouldn't trigger other people to want the same increase. But more importantly the CS pension fund has had a boost this year because of the yield of 30 year Gilts increasing with the BOE interest rate. The fund's theoretical deficit has turned into an enormous surplus.

I’m glad for anything that will support people struggling to get by.

It is a rare day that I get to compliment the UC system, but while I can’t speak for disability rates, UC generally works on minimum thresholds for things rather than maximum, so it should help people to meet thresholds rather than penalise people on the border of things.

That being said, they have put the UC AET up 3 times over the last year and they usually base work requirements on NMW hour equivalents e.g you have to be earning the equivalent of least 35 hours per week NMW, rather than a fixed figure, so it probably won’t make much difference to people actually earning NMW and will pressure people who were previously earning the equivalent amount on less hours, likely due to caring responsibilities, even further.

Cost of living will also increase with an increase in NMW.

I really think everyone should have a livable wage but the costs just get passed on either to the consumers or the tax payers and within a couple of years the benefits of an increase will have disappeared. (I can't believe I'm arguing against an NMW increase!)

This doesn’t work in the public sector.

As a small business owner all this means is we'll be forced to put our prices up yet again which will have a knock on effect on our customers. An increase in NMW means we need to increase all our staff wages accordingly otherwise no one will do the senior jobs.

This is the sugar-coating on the "We're cutting taxes for the rich" pill.

Good news although suspicious timing. Let’s forget everything else that this government has done because they’ve raised nmw!

For an extra £2.40 an hour you could be a newly qualified nurse.

Great!

However this is above what Band 2 NHS staff are paid (already underpaid and skilled nursing assistants), so they’ll be on minimum wage which is fucked up in itself. They may as well work in a job with no responsibilities.

@Gnomegnomegnome I qualified 3 years ago and remember thinking this. The girl who worked in the costa downstairs earned less than £1.50 an hour than me.

Aye, but 10 years from now the best she'll have achieved without changing employer is probably a 20p per hour increase above her current minimum wage. Whereas I assume you'll get service-based and career-based increases.

Do people really think those on minimum wage have zero responsibilities in their jobs?

I earn minimum wage. I lock up and alarm 5 buildings every shift. There is a piece of equipment I have to check every shift that could cause harm if not working correctly. I passed a course to do this. I look after the whole site on my own with no other colleagues. Admittedly I'm not a heart surgeon with lives in my hands but neither are most people.

Companies will just employ more 18-20 year olds for cheaper labour and cut the hours of the over 21's

They should have increased the Personal Tax Allowance at the same time.

Is the figure £23,753 pa correct?
This is only slightly under what I am paid as a post graduate qualified professional with 14 years experience. The salary for my profession is practically the same as when I qualified and now it would seem that I am going to be paid practically the same as someone working at Tescos. Throughly depressing and demotivating

No, I calculated it of £11.42 ph I think!

40 hrs x 52 weeks x £11.44 = £23,795.20

Fat chance. I work for a charity - so we might struggle to fund this. We are unlikely to get increased funding or a real uplift in contract amounts for this so it could be a struggle.

The gap between my wage and NMW is going to be even smaller.
A 9% increase in wages would be a dream but our average increase is 2% 😣

UC will go down for those on minimum wage so they will say there’s x amount less UC being claimed.

What professional job do you do that only pays that amount? Hard to believe it's an actual profession.

It feels like he’s sneaking in a load of family and young person friendly policies before the next election. First lowering the age for free childcare and now this.

Not zero responsibilities but often less than others who earn slightly more.

@Haver74
Really? I'd say you're quite unknowable about how much people actually get paid. Lots of jobs in the NHS/ education / public sector require a degree or postgraduate training and only pay a couple of thousand a year above what is now the minimum wage

I must say I do find discussions on wages here amusing. Whenever there are 'what do you earn' threads the vast majority are high earners who see £40/50k wages as low but then whenever minimum wage is increased suddenly everyone is only on a few pence more!

Maybe they're different people out of the MN membership of millions, all with different lives?

Yeah as a public sector worker I've just had ANOTHER pay decrease then as we fought and fought for a 2% payrise and were told we should be thankful. We'd never get a 10% rise 🙄