Universal salry - could it ever work?

[manicinsomniac]

This occurred to me as I was reading another thread but I didn't want to derail.

Do you think we could ever live in a society that paid adults for the hours of work they do, not the type of work? So people would be paid by the hour, regardless of what job they were doing, rather than having an annual salary.

For example, people in the UK are to earn £15 per hour. So someone who cleans for 3 hours earns £45 but someone who cleans for 10 hours earns £150 and a doctor who does a 15 hour shift earn £225 while a lawyer who works 6 hours earns £90. People log their hours every day and get paid their sum total of working hours at the end of the week or month.

The incentive to work hard is still there because the more you work the more you get. You would still have people in a full range of jobs because people have different skills, interests, circumstances and degrees of intelligence.

I suppose the issue is - do people ever choose a job based on the money it pays alone and are there any jobs that nobody would do if they weren't as highly paid as they are? I work in a middle salary job (teacher) and didn't consider money when I was deciding what I want to do. I imagine most people choose on what they want or are able to do and are either pleased or resigned about the salary?

Obviously you couldn't do this to current adults. It would have to be phased in for people entering employment for the first time.

Is it crazy? It is, isn't it? There's some huge flaw I'm failing to see.

Completely and utterly insane.

Oh, I agree that this hypothetical society would have to offer free education. It makes no sense otherwise.

So I'm now only 7 years of salary behind, rather than 7 years of salary plus student debt.

I trained for 10 years for my profession, including two doctorates. It's stressful, but rewarding. I work a lot of hours. But under your system I could do something much easier and spend more time with my kid.

I work in the caring profession - most of us have children. No one does it purely for the love.

Aw, bless the op

And who's going to hire me to clean if it means they pay me their wages? I'd be out of work unless I could find cleaning jobs outside of homes.

re the training - being a student would have to count as a job. We'd need to pay people to gain skills rather than charging them. Not realistic, I'm sure, but I'm talking about my fantasy world anyway.

BMW - I'm actually surprised that milkmen earn more than cleaners in the current system. Sorry, genuinely didn't know that. I thought it was a minimum wage job.

There would, of course, still be competition for more popular jobs. The best would get them. So all jobs would get filled. It's just that those that end up in less popular jobs (though I'm sure they would still be the job of choice for some) would at least get decent money for them.

An excellent point, MsTar

Manic "My assumption was that it was far more common to work for work rather than work for money."

this astounds me, tbh. I feel as if that's a statement that can only come from someone who has never had to worry about money in any way?

what sort of universal hourly pay rate are you thinking of btw?

Good point MsTragaryen - I guess it wouldn't be able to apply to most of the self employed. People would all have to be employed by companies

In fact, people directly and regularly employing people would go out of the window? Only net wealth creators (companies making stuff) could employ?

Cleaners, nannies, childminders, carers, etc.

I'm a professional, and I like my job. I did a variety of 'menial' roles before qualifying, including cleaning which I hated, bar work which I liked, and waitressing which I wasn't that keen on. Also some call centre (hated) and admin (didn't mind). Before kids, I'd probably still have been willing to incur the higher stress and continuing professional education requirements of my job, because I liked it. And I'd have gone to uni for the fun of it for undergraduate, not the subsequent vocational training though as that was boring as shit. So I'm not the straightforward, I only do it for the money type (my profession isn't especially well renumerated anyway).

And yet... I still wouldn't bother doing it now. I'd do one of the less prestigious jobs I did before entering my profession. Because they'd be easier to fit around the kids and less stressful. There are people who do my job for the love of it, but as there's a bit of a shortage of people with my qualifications generally, not enough. I need some kind of financial incentive these days.

What happens to profits from business If everyone's getting paid the same?

Would we even need money?

The best would get them

What criteria are you using to distinguish "the best"????????

Sorry, last question stupid. We aren't all earning the same, we are all being paid the same hourly rate. Therefore, capacity for people to have different amounts.

There are rather a lot of people in this country who are already paid hourly. Most of them have no choice about the number of hours they are allowed to work - that is set by their employer so no, this wouldn't work.

This would just kill economic growth at a stroke. It would be a recipe for everyone to do their job as slowly as possible. There would be no incentive to strive for career progression or improve efficiency because there would be no reward. If everyone is paid the same, sure, some people would save more than others, but the housing and consumer markets would eventually collapse as everybody would be reduced to the lowest common denominator. Bonkers idea OP.

Having spent most of my working years in a stressful HCP job with all that it entails, I would happily embrace your utopian idea, as long as I could spend the rest of my working days stacking shelves in the local supermarket.

And who would do the stringent management? Not me, if I got paid the same as the people being managed.

Why would you go for a promotion (eg head of year or faculty) which involves a lot more stress and responsibility, when you'd be earning the same as the teaching assistant?

I'm actually surprised that milkmen earn more than cleaners in the current system. Sorry, genuinely didn't know that. I thought it was a minimum wage job

Op.

Or you actually of Earth?

Or an Alien studying our planet? Although perfectly lovely, you are not coming across as if you are currently present in this reality.

*are

Commonly known as communism. That doesn't tend to work so well.

I haven't slogged my guts out and been stressed to high heaven juggling uni, work, kids, house and finances for three years, only to earn the same amount as i was working in retail!

okay, yeah, there are lots of problems then. Shame.

BMW6 - well, whoever comes out on top at interview - combination of skills, education, experience, personality, blagging etc etc