National Minimum Wage Increase

[good96]

With the NMW increase from April 2025 rising to £12.21 - for someone who works 40 hours a week - that is £25,400!

Can see so many businesses struggling/restructuring/redundancies after this!

And that's nothing short of age discrimination and should not be legal.

So you'd rather that low paid workers could be exploited here too? Because then it would be fair in your eyes?

Exactly! A decent working wage is 'a handout!' 😂 LMFAO. Some of the posts on this thread are comedy gold. 😆

To the person who thinks I 'lack a clue' above- I employ a large number of people.
I think I probably do have a few more clues than most.

Not minimum wage.

Because they're all coming on here and telling on themselves.

That really isn't the flex you think it is. You've demonstrated your lack of understanding many times here. I pity your poor employees.

I pay well over the minimum wage for all my employees bar one who is on minimum wage- she can choose the hours she works/ when she works them and where she works. As long as the work is done I am happy and this has enabled her to look after her disabled son however she needs to and she is very happy.
No need to pity my folks- barely anyone leaves- and the one who did, asked for his old job back after a month.

@hamsterchump

"Has it ever occurred to the business owners on here that perhaps if ordinary people had more money in their pocket they might be able to afford your overpriced widgets. "

That assumes 100% of UK consumer spending goes on domestically produced goods and services whereas in reality only 66% is and 33% of UK consumer spending is on imported goods and services.

@LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway
"Exactly this. ^ There are some breathtakingly ignorant and clueless posts on this thread! And the comments are clearly coming from a place of privilege, OR from people who don't work. (Possibly both!)"

I'm a high earner, but not from a place of privilege. I'm first generation university, I went to a comp on a council estate. My parents struggled massively in the 80s/90s with redundancy and poverty. Life was generally hard and unhappy for most of my childhood.

Here's what I didn't do:

• expect someone else to make it better for me
• accept I couldn't change anything
• have kids before I could afford to

Here's what I did do:

• ask my careers officer about which jobs made the most money (her advice wasn't accurate but it was ok - law or medicine)
• studied hard for GCSEs and A levels so I could do a law degree.
• Borrowed to enable me to study
• found out which areas of law made the most money and sponsored post grad study
• applied for and got one of those trainee jobs - 300 miles from home
• found a room in shared accommodation as I knew no one in the city
• borrowed more money to set up home, buy suits etc
• worked my ass off to ensure I'd be offered a job at the end of my traineeship (saying yes to all work, working late, weekends and sometimes all night)

By my mid 20s I was able to bail out my parents debt for the final time (avoiding family jewellery being lost to the pawnbroker and clearing 20k on credit cards) By 30 I'd paid off my debt and started saving for a deposit. I then bought a small flat with my partner. We married after 7 years together (we were together 5 years before we bought together) and I had my first child at 33, second at 35. I do not rely on family for childcare - or in fact anything else. Since I was 18, they've been relying on me.

So no privilege, only hard work and good decision making.

No she is right.Long term this will be a move towards reducing the pay gap.As the NMW get paid more those above them will eventually be paid less.Companies who don't do this, won't be competitive price-wise.Obviously this will be a long term thing as the labour force naturally turns over.

Huh? They will still be paid for holidays.

Is your minimum wage employee performing the same role as the others or is it a standalone job?

Raising the tax threshold would probably have been better for individuals, but from a government perspective, they would be receiving less income tax, whereas increasing the minimum wage will increase tax receipts and reduce entitlement to universal credit.

On another note, I think some people are forgetting that the increase isn't just going to affect businesses. I work for a medium sized charity and this is going really cause problems. We managed a significant cost of living increase for a lot of employees last year, but now there's a big increase in minimum wage and an increase in employer n.i contributions. We've also been warned that there are going to be significant cuts in government grants across the board in our sector, and although exact numbers haven't been given, we've been told they could be as high as 20%. (Have to say, it does seem ironic that after 14 years of a Tory government, it's a Labour government making huge cuts). It's just a whole shitstorm of pressure on budgets, which are already tight. Services are going to have to be cut, and very vulnerable service users are going to suffer, but the services simply will not be financially viable.

@Totallymessed yes so they arnt really helping people are they? They are not lifting people out of poverty or putting more money into the hands of the working man

I am shocked at the level of anti business sentiment on this thread.

I fully agree that the incomes of those in the lower quartile should go up but I also fully accept that if this is through higher wages this will come at the cost of jobs especially whilst you have free trade in place. It's a trade off.

What surprises me is that whilst most posters agree that this should be achieved through higher wages no one seems interested in achieving the same result by increasing the tax thresholds that have been frozen for years and without costing private sector jobs.

@mm81736
not sure i entirely agree that increasing NMW will reduce the pay gap - people will always want more money for more stress or work requirements such as qualifications/skills.

people may decide they dont want more demands made on them (for little extra pay) and stay in the NMW jobs, effectively blocking any new recruits.

Kta7
A totally different role- typing up reports.

A 'non- skilled' minimum wage role.
Typing up handwritten notes from the engineers.

When she took the job she was a trainee herself, and has been promoted since. She's been there about 6 years now. Her boss can't do anything about increasing her wages, they are all on standard hourly rate contracts nationwide and it is a huge organisation. It is the hospitality industry, which is not known for its generosity to its employees!

She hasn't expressed any dissatisfaction to me - I was merely responding to another poster who had been affected similarly.

Tbh - the engineers could type up their notes on site on a laptop instead of handwriting them for her to type up- that would be an obvious saving.
But she's nice and I like being able to help her and her son. Maybe I will have to streamline if nmw increases again ...

If a business can't afford £1400 per year for a full-time employee extra. They don't have a viable business. I say that as a business owner

Maybe the business owners should spend less time on here commenting about minimum wage increases unfairly affecting them and more time on their ‘struggling business’.

Presumably this is some kind of veiled threat towards your poor employee who you claim to like but obviously view only as a tool for your use.

You aren't "helping" anyone by employing them on MW for your own gain and I hope that poor woman gets out from under your thumb as soon as possible.

You are fascinating, tell me: do you consider yourself a good person? If so do you think your posts here have reflected that?

Yes! Brilliant!