To think if the minimum wage has gone up all other salaries should too?

[PlayOnWurtz]

Because they haven't. I work in the public sector and My salary is now shit. For the stress I am under and the responsibilities I have my salary has become grossly devalued due to the NMW to the point I'm seriously considering jacking my job in and going to work in my local garden centre where I would probably enjoy myself more.

Aibu?

YABU, equivalent increases will just lead to inflation.

The purpose of the NMW is to bring up pay at the bottom. Low wages are subsidised by all of us with in work benefits such as tax credits. This can't be addressed if all pay goes up so relatively the gap between the lowest pay and higher pay levels increases.

So what happens when NMW goes up and matches that of a more professional entry level post? Which it could well do. You'll then get professional AND low skill workers caught in the poverty trap.

So we shouldn't ever raise minimum wage? Or we shouldn't have one at all?

Honestly I think it's poorly thought out and going to significantly raise the cost of living. Is there going to be a benefits raise to factor in the inevitable increase in bills?

It's already happening- look at the salaries of those in academia.
I know people in the LA that have been on rolling notice of redundancy for six years now. It's shit. Wages were frozen at the time of the downturn, so 8 years now. In the meantime food costs and fuel have almost doubled. These are jobs that you need post-grad quals for, plus considerable experience, not scale 2 type jobs.

So for all those years when the public sector got above inflation pay rises while the private sector got rises so small they were effectively cuts did you agigitate then about the value of their work being deflated? Or have you just started getting agitated now it affects you?

I think we all know the answer to that. And I think you will find it will provide the answer to why many people can't find themselves mustering up much sympathy for you either.

Incidentally I think there is a much better argument that the work of those on minimum wage was undervalued in comparison to yours before than there is that yours is undervalued now.

When did public sector get above inflation wage rises?

Oh boohoo. I see far too many 'professional' jobs that add little bottom line value. People who wear a nice dress and spend two hours making a decision on a whiteboard that was self-evident in the first five minutes really piss me off, but they are often paid way more than people who could make the right decision in between blinks on the drive to work AND implement it, yet people who take three weeks and five seminars to write it up and print it into folders BUT STILL NOT IMPLEMEMT IT are getting paid twice as much as the people who actually get it done. Newsflash, most things in organisation's have NO VALUE until they are implemented, yet we pay less to implementers as a rule.

I think it sounds like you are underpaid. So look for another job. The minimum wage/ living wage is only £7.50 an hour and the average salary is about £26K which based on a 40 hour week would be £13 an hour.

So if you are working in a demanding job for not much more than minimum wage, you need to get looking around.

I don't get why a small increase in minimum wage will make a significant difference to the cost of living?

Surely the poor people on minimum wage by definition don't have much money to spend, and giving them a few extra pennies an hour isn't going to massively increase consumption (more likely they'll be able to have adequate heating on a really cold day...)?

Surely its an absolute minimum, and raising it a little, doesn't imply everyone else needs more, that just maintains a gap, and following the same logic (as the idea that increasing minimum wage increases the cost of living), it'd mean everyone else had a bit more to spend, which would increase the cost of living far more, so the poorest people would get no benefit from the minimum wage increase.

I'm not an expert on economics, so happy to be educated if I have reasoned this out wrongly :-)

Honestly I think it's poorly thought out and going to significantly raise the cost of living If you think NMW is going to put up the cost of living, what do you think raising everyone's wages will do?

scaryclown couldn't agree more, that's my job

scary only in the public sector professional posts are teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers, physiotherapists, solicitors, police officers... Are you saying all of those posts add no value?

Oh shit! Of course! If you 'look around' you immediately get a job! How foolish I've been! [Hmm]

Yes I'll just look around for a job...erm....

Sorry this thread is making me laugh out loud. All the Mumsnetters who for years have been banging on about how we need people working in terribly paid jobs because it keeps the economy going and builders and care assistants and secretaries and shop assistants should just live in poverty and shut up. Did you really all think that it was going to carry on forever with people poorer than you getting poorer and poorer? As long as it was always someone else it was happening to some of you were happy. But now it's creeping it's way into your jobs you're all outraged. Diddums. Suck it up. You didn't care when it happened to other people, why should they care about you?

BunnyChick - There is a a lot of economics research suggesting that increasing wages at the bottom has the biggest multiplier effect in the economy. Poorer folk are using all their disposable income - increasing their wages puts money straight into (mostly) their local economy.

I agree with bits of bills post

Just not the bits like didumms and laugh

Its an extra 30p an hour as we know

I work part time in retail and dont mind the pay, however there are no payrises unless the companies are forced

In my job we have been forced to take a cut of either 1 or 2 hours (i was on 8 now on 6) thats a 25% drop in my wages

To find that extra 30p and push it up the ranks i will lose £15 per week

It is shit

But loads and loads of jobs dont get pay rises and havent for years

YANreallyBU

But you are if you want to take my 30p away

How dare those poor people get a minuscule wage rise that still leaves them on less than actual living wage. How dare they think their time and work might be worth more than they're getting paid. How dare the govt continue to support them with tax credits because they're still not paid enough to survive.

If you're unhappy with your situation then do something about it, don't try to keep those at the lower end of earning below you because you've not kicked up a fuss about how shit your 'clearly more than nmw' wages are.

I don't think it's fair that public sector wages have been hit so hard but so few bother with unions and the concept of collective action and are happy to see others shafted by govt policies and poverty as long as it's not affecting them. Well now it is affecting you, what are you going to do about it? Demand the poor are paid less again or campaign for fairer wages for all?

Are these roles even Professional?
I'm not sure Teaching, Nursing or Social work would be defined as Professional roles.
Is there an expectation here of renumeration beyond the actual job role?

I don't see how the NMW going up 'devalues' your job, unless you think the value of what you do lies entirely in how much you are paid to do it? To make the argument, you'd have to show evidence that prices have increased in response to this and not, say, the devaluation of the pound against the euro/dollar. Does that evidence exist?

Eh, I can see it both ways. The minimum wage needs to go up - even £7.50 an hour is ridiculous. I'm in retail and on nearly £8 an hour after we just got a pay rise last month, and it's such a small amount of money when you consider the cost of living.

I do see the arguement that other jobs should get an increase too, BUT I do think a lot of so-called professional/graduate roles are already overpaid. Not all, but some. I don't buy the argument that everyone needs a pay rise just because the poorest workers are getting one.