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.

Jeff I was hoping that was what you meant! Ah, I could kiss you

There are definite links with communism. What would you do with people who can't/ won't work? Want to retire early? How would you stop the most able/ skilled from seeking their fortune in other countries who will financially reward them. I wouldn't be doing the job I do if I could earn the same salary doing something more relaxing.

I don't cross paths with that many people who aren't either the same or better off.

So all of the teaching assistants, cleaners and midday assistants that you work with are all exactly the same as you and earn the same? The caretaker? People that you buy things from in the shop are all the same or better off than you? The person selling you Avon? Taxi Drivers? The person at the post office who takes your recorded delivery parcel? The GP's receptionist? The nurse who does your smear?

Do you live in a bubble?

This is what they do in north Korea. Not the best success story in the world.

It's not actually, in North Korea they have different wages for different career paths/jobs. A doctor is not paid the same as a cleaner.

Also op, there are a number of people who earn minimum wage but with tax credits and housing benefit have a higher income than someone earning more who would nominally be worse off under this system.

You might be surprised how many people would find their income would reduce under a flat income system.

manic
I socialise mostly within my own class
ie you have blinkered out all of the people who support your lifestyle

• the petrol station attendants
• the supermarket delivery driver
• the bin men
• the posties
• the shelf stackers
• the chip shop staff
• the nursery assistants

^^
well no but, other than the teaching assistant at my school who is definitely from a very affluent home, I don't know any of those people well. I don't discuss their lives with them in any great detail. I meant my social circle is relatively homogenous. Obviously I don't know what's going on behind the scenes in everyone's lives but, if it's behind the scenes, then I don't know about it to observe or comment on.

I don't really want to discuss the ins and outs of my own life or the lives of people I know. I've already intentionally upset people by talking about salary and I don't want to make it worse.

What I wanted to discuss has already been answered - is the idea of paying people for their time rather than their job title plausible? And the answer is a very clear no. I accepted that about 2 hours ago. I don't think I really have much more to add.

*unintentionally!!!!

sorry, that was to rollon - but same answer to TalkinPeace - I meant people I know well enough to know much about them.

rollonthesummer - yes, that's what I was thinking.

OP, thanks for clarifying. I don't have a partner and I live on my earnings as do many people.

but also two people working in retail (for example) might have a combined income of £25k and everything you've posted suggests total lack of awareness of this.

Good that you realise the answer is a clear no. As you have posted on AIBU, which means you were brave enough to take the answer, I'd respectfully suggest you have a lot to learn about how people live and how pay rates, high, low and middling, work. And you need to learn it - otherwise you're not doing your children or the children you teach any favours.

And you also really need to learn about finance - suggesting £15 per hour when you thought it equated to such a high salary suggests a lack of awareness which again, you don't want to pass on to your children.

Though surely you are aware though that teaching assistants, cleaners, midday assistants and caretakers (people you work with on a daily basis) are paid much less than you?

£15 per hour is a moderately high salary. It's more than I earn under our current unequal system, and I have a PhD. I still have to repay 'debt' from an undergraduate degree which clearly didn't enable me to 'earn' more than the national average, too, as do most graduates now (see recent BBC articles on most graduates being in non-graduate jobs- as it happens mine is a graduate job, just a civil service one so pay frozen and relatively shite compared to private sector, but most people who do it do so for the wish to provide a public service). I wouldn't have a problem with being paid the same hourly rate as a cleaner if undergraduate degrees were state funded (and PhDs, as they already are, funded by research councils on merit). I do think the idea would need a little tinkering for high-responsibility roles such as consultants who would ideally not be working very long hours and becoming too tired to cope with patients- perhaps a banding system for responsibility level, but in principle it isn't communism and it isn't implausible, and hasn't been tried anywhere so gtfo with the North Korea nonsense when there clearly are wage inequalities (and massive corruption, family wealth, etc) there.

Have not read the full thread, sorry if anyone has already made these points.

I work in medicine. If I make a mistake I could kill someone.

I fully expect to be paid for this responsibility and think I deserve the money that I earn. I would not be happy at all if someone without the same responsibility and qualifications as me was earning the same as me per hour.

I went to uni to study what I did, partly because I had an interest in the subject, and partly because I knew it would be a job that would see me financially secure. Therefore I don't think people would still go to uni to study such subjects just because they enjoy it.

As a nanny, I start work an hour befor my bosses, I finish an hour later than them, both of them have to socialise at least once a week for work, unpaid, I would still want paying! On an average week I work 15 hours more than they would. They work 9-6:30 so 19 hours a day and I work 13 hours a day on average, so between them they would have £90 a day left!

All child carers would be obselete. I've been a nanny for 29 years, I wouldn't know what else to do.

Therefore YABU. It would never work.

Absolutely bonkers idea! There's no way I would do my stressful, long hours job if I could be paid exactly the same for doing something a lot less stressful. Sure, the work I do is interesting and challenging but I certainly wouldn't do it if I was being paid the same as the junior staff (who I have to supervise) in my organisation.

Despite your idealistic notions I think if you could survey everyone in work you would find that the majority of people are motivated by money throughout their working lives. For some (maybe lots) of people there is a point where they don't go for promotion or for that more challenging job because they don't want the extra stress and responsibility, but that is a conscious choice made by the individual. In your world why would anyone ever want to do more difficult stressful jobs?