To want a pay rise which will exceed the new living wage?

[MrsBurt]

I currently earn about 5% above NMW. When the living wage comes in I'm fairly sure that my money won't rise beyond the minimum. AIBU to want more? I feel a bit like I'm being snobby thinking my job isn't what I'd class as a minimum wage job, but then there are other jobs I could do for the minimum wage with less stress and inconvenience.

It depends if the company can afford it and what competitors do, really. We're in this position with some of our staff, we deliberately paid them more than the min wage (and more than competitors paid) but we can't afford to give them a raise which will take them over the new living wage at the moment (new company) so they're probably going to feel less valued as a result.

I've thought about this too.. Our yearly payrises at work have been almost non-existant for years. I earn about £11.50 an hour. When the minimum rises to £10, will i earn the same % above min as I do now or will it stay the same with the normal 1%-2% increases.

Its a question we've all been asking eachother in the canteen and no one seems to know! I don't think its snobby at all, as you say I could do a job with much less pressure, stress and responsibility and with much less education and earn not that much less on the new MW.

I've been worried about that too. What I'm most worried about is that, logically, prices for food etc will have to increase for companies to make back the extra money they are now paying for living wage. I'm on a salary, but my hourly rate works out as £12.43. I'm NHS staff so our wages rises are capped at 1% for the next four years AND the new budget has increased the national insurance contribution we make as we previously had a reduced rate.

Obviously I have nothing against the principle of the living wage, and I think it's a great measure to have brought in, but I'm concerned about the knock on impacts for everything else.

what is the cost of living increase this year?

The Minimum wage/new living wage is going from £6.70 to £7.20 for 25+ year olds.

Lots of employers aren't paying any cost of living increase at all this year (for those not included in the min wage increase) or are doing a couple of % at most. Inflation was basically 0 over the last year.

For some businesses that sort of increase in 1 year is really noticeable tbh. We've thought about it some more and we are going to give the staff who are getting the increase a bigger raise to keep them over the minimum wage, but we won't be able to afford to do it for the staff at higher grades so the difference between the grades will reduce.

I hope I'm not being snobby either but I earn minimum wage and think our job deserves more. I'm a carer and a lot of what I do is end of life care. I feel very passionately about what I do and I love it but a lot of it takes its physical and emotional toll. I currently have an injury which I have no hope of getting better as I wouldn’t get any sick pay to rest it. But the flip side is I'd rather be poor but in a job I love.

I'm losing 2.5k as a result of NLW..my company restructured pay and removed bonuses, to say I don't feel valued is an understatement..The restructuring affects the longer term employee so loyalty clearly isn't valued....A 18yr old comes out with a big payrise..

the new budget has increased the national insurance contribution we make as we previously had a reduced rate.

Huh? I've never heard that before.

Another nhs worker here. Yes apparantly we pay an extra 1.5% in NI contributions from next month, they did that very quietly. So 1% pay rise and 1.5% pay cut. Fab.

I think when the NLW goes up to £9 in a couple of years there will be big problems. People currently earning £9 an hour will expect/want their pay to increase by a couple of £ an hour if their job is currently valued at something above NLW. So if they go up to £11 an hour then the people currently earning £11 an hour will also want a pay rise......it could have a massive ripple effect.

But if the ripple doesn't cascade upwards it could well be that people in certain pay brackets think "fuck this", hand their notice in and work a minimum wage job instead.

really - they removed the opt out for 2nd state pension, anyone whose company opted them out now finds themselves with a hike in NI contributions.

Reduced NI contributions were paid by people in final salary pension schemes, so teachers, NHS, Police, etc. They paid a reduced contribution and opted out of part of the state pension as they didn't 'need' it as, theoretically, their work pension was going to be sufficient to live on comfortably. In recent years, they have messed around with these pension schemes, changing them to career average meaning the employees will be less well off when they retire. Because of this, the Government has abolished the reduced rate NI, which was worth roughly 1.4% of earnings, and forced them all to pay back in to the full State Pension.

This is really hard. My husband and I run an independent restaurant- I'm head chef, he's in charge of front of house. The new minimum wage means that our KP and cleaner will both be on more than the lowest grade chef, technically a more skilled job...we've therefore made the decision to up wages a little all round, up to the assistant manager even though he's under 25 (although gets paid well above MW) We can't really afford it, tax cripples us, but want our staff to feel valued and feel (hope) that making this gesture will make them see we care and do think about them. Having said that, we are having to up prices marginally to cover this, it's the only option. Speaking to other small business owners in our town, they are mostly keeping wages as low as possible, or far worse, letting people go as they can't afford it and simply increasing other staff workloads which we find pretty awful.

I work in central London, but my employer is based around 200 miles north. The last increase we had in London weighting was in 2009. Yes, I've had (small) yearly cost of living increases, but my employer believes that the specific costs of living in London haven't increased at all in seven years.

I think that many businesses are going to have difficulty with this. No one is on the NMW where I work but some are on £9.50, the closer it gets to that figure the more people will feel they should have an increase too. Plus it's pension auto enrolment this year for us which not only is a considerable expense to set up but will wipe out any pay rise. I imagine that in two years any pay increase will more than negated by the rising cost of living.

Can someone explain it to me please? Is NLW replacing NMW? It doesn't, does it..? I don't understand the relationship between the two.

Yes I think NLW is new name for NMW.

It's not replacing, it is the new but It only affects over 25, a new tire as previously the rate changed at 16 18 21 only. A lot of over 25s on mw are likely about to see their hours cut - an 18 can work them instead for 5.30 an hour legally.

Unless this is applied to all adults, all that will happen is a calculated rise in employment in young people. Which will improve statistics.