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?

Comparable to up north ... no where near the same ...

as a report last week from PricewaterhouseCoopers underlined. Its economists paint a bleak picture of a widening north-south divide, with Yorkshire and the north-east hardest hit, and London relatively unscathed.

Lilmiss - the page you linked to doesn't exist.

Strangely my local authority in Essex has faced funding cuts of 30% since 2019 whereas my DSis' local authority in the NE has faced funding cuts of 20% over the same period.

sorry - that should have said 2010.

I don't like the NMW ....I don't think it solves any problems. It does just push up the cost of living. And we have the highest (next highest) NMW in Europe.
Yes in theory it means lower paid people have more money to spend (in the local economy) but it means that business costs increase. So the local shop employing someone to work behind the counter has to find more money to pay them - that has to come from somewhere, so the prices in the shop have to go up. Also maybe they can only afford to pay one member of staff instead of 2
And the person on NMW will have to pay more for their shopping - I guess the price increase will be shared more equally between all the customers though.
Go to a restaurant for a meal - the food cost will be higher (as the agricultural workers, packers, supply companies will all have to pay their staff more). All the restaurant staff - waiting staff, wash ups, junior chefs, cleaners - will cost more. And other costs - like laundry - will be more. The restaurant will have to charge more for that meal. So the people on NMW will still be less likely to be able to afford to go.
I think reducing tax on lower incomes and increasing tax on higher incomes is the way to go (I was really happy about the personal allowance going up -taking poorly paid people out of tax - but with NMW going up that is pushing them back into tax...)

I work for a small not for profit with employees. Most are on NMW (used to be slightly above but no more) - at times it runs at a loss - at one point it came close to folding - the staff had to have reduced hours, when someone left we didn't fill their place - if it folded they wouldn't have a job at all.
It isn't a bad job - the staff like their work, it is on the whole enjoyable and there are advantages. It is part-time, fairly flexible - the staff are mainly women who have child care responsibilities and partners who work full time - it is mainly term time within school hours - no childcare costs. It allows them to bring in extra income.
When we can we pay extras - bonuses etc - on the understanding that when we can't - we can't. It is all completely open - they know the financial position - whether bonuses are likely or not - no-one is trying to take advantage of anyone.
It is much better that someone gets extra income than being paid a higher hourly rate and then being in a position where they have to take less home than they are used to - cutting that hourly rate.

Not only have we had to deal with an increasing NMW but also with the introduction of auto enrolment pensions we have to find an extra 1% - rising to 3% in 2018 of the wages of some of the staff for our employer contribution. That is basically equivalent to the business of a 3% pay rise -and they will be paying 5% so basically the money in their pocket will go down by 5%.

At the moment we are fine but in the future we will be very likely be in the position of needing to cut costs - and because of NMW that can only be working hours again - which can mean they can be even worse off as they still have the same travel expenses etc - so possibly better for them to drop a whole shift.
I think instead of paying more we should be looking at things like the cost of living - especially housing costs - I think Gordon Brown made a huge mistake giving workers in the public sector pay increases because they couldn't afford housing - all that did was push the price of housing up even more with limited benefit to the employees.
(There is no difference earning £22k pa and paying £1kpa housing than earning £26k pa and paying £5k pa housing...and if that is to buy a house it means that the person who sold the house made money to plough into another house - which pushed up the price of that etc etc - it isn't 'real' money)
But it is very difficult to do anything about housing costs because that would bring down the cost of all houses putting people who overpaid in recent years into negative equity ...
If we no longer have free movement of people within the EU that should take the pressure off the NMW .
The free movement put pressure on lower paid jobs - if someone can come from a country with a NMW of £4 ph to work and live cheaply for a few years then go back to a lower cost of living - they will be 'wealthy'. If they get £6ph that is better than they could earn in a similar role -or even a better role in their own country - whereas if you are trying to set up home and have a family here £6 ph isn't enough... Employers can (and did) take advantage of that...

I work for a small private business and have done for twenty years.
In the last four years of being here our trained up (by me)trainee now has had four pay increases.
This years is 3%.
I've not had a pay increase for six years.

Where my dh works (2 years)his pay has increased by 3% also which is great.

I feel disheartened to be honest after years of service and experience and although a pay rise hasn't been offered in going to put in for one.
All my utilities have gone up this year but wages for me haven't.
I may be on a higher wage than others but it doesn't mean we don't deserve to be paid the same in a pay rise.
I have no private pension as bringing up a family is costly and have not been offered a pension scheme via work either.

My Em works for the NHS and yes I agree it's bloody hard work and staff morale is low but it's the same in private businesses aswell,but without the pension schemes or travel discount or retail discounts and I certainly don't get as much annual leave so it's swings and roundabouts I say

My husband hasn't had a pay increase for 9 years, not a single penny! He would love to get a job elsewhere but jobs in his sector are hard to come by and most companies are not offering pay rises and are only taking on inexperienced staff who they can pay less money. His salary has definitely been devalued in relation the rises in the NMW. 9 years ago his salary was quite decent but with NMW having an effect on the cost of living his salary is now not looking great.

All I want is for my pay to increase with inflation, I don't think that is an unreasonable ask.

They manage to do it with pensions, and we just get shafted.

Not sure if you are being U op, all I can do is compare others' situations to my own and I can only dream of earning £20k a year at the moment, which is not considered a high salary at all by most people.

I have 8ish yrs experience in my field and am qualified as much as I can be. I work bloody hard and the job is physically tough, stressful, and comes with a lot of pressure and responsibilities. I still only make NMW, even when I work weekends and bank holidays. Forget taking time off if you are ill! So I admit I am not really sympathetic to someone who sits in an office 9-5 and makes £26k (not saying you do op, but some who complain about not getting paid enough do).

NMW should be higher in my opinion, many of the people that do NMW jobs work very very hard even if they are not 'qualified' or 'skilled'.

The rise in NMW and the new pension rules will be putting many employers under additional financial pressure. Having to adjust higher paid staff may well amount to the difference between them going under or not! is it more important to have an extra 20p an hour or to have a job still in 6 months?

Ofudginghell

Next year I assume they will have to>

By 2018 all employers must provide a workplace pension scheme. This is called ‘automatic enrolment’.

Your employer must automatically enrol you into a pension scheme and make contributions to your pension if all of the following apply:

you’re classed as a ‘worker’
you’re aged between 22 and State Pension age
you earn at least £10,000 per year
you usually (‘ordinarily’) work in the UK (read the detailed guidance if you’re not sure)

I'm not sure Teaching, Nursing or Social work would be defined as Professional roles.

Seriously....? These are some of the most responsible jobs in the whole world. They are far more professional than the job I have.

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

Did I say that you would 'immediately' get a job - er no. But surely if you feel that you are underpaid for many this is a logical step to at least look and try rather than complaining about it. Interestingly men are more likely to move for more money, plus they are more likely to ask for more money.

When the NMW goes up I will earn £3.50 more per day. That's not a huge increase. Tbh the business owners should include a decent rate or pay for their staff as one of their expenses.

Some employers act like they are doing employees a huge favour in employing them and paying them wages. They aren't, their staff are providing a service for them in exchange for pay, it is supposed to be a mutually beneficial relationship.

Case in point - there was a job advertised on a local FB page, they were offering a daily rate that amounted to less that NMW and since it was building work they stated that the staff wouldn't necessarily get paid regularly but rather if and when they got paid for jobs by clients. The staff members was also classed as 'self employed' so no sick or holiday pay and responsible for their own tax etc. When challenged about this they pretty much implied that they were saints for even offering the opportunity in a high unemployment area. Yeah, because whoever ends up working for them will be soooo lucky.

user1471439240 Fri 31-Mar-17 09:40:49
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 only got as far as this beauty. My daughter is a NQT. She did 4 years at University and as a NQT she still has mentor sessions and reports to write on her performance and teach a class full of kids every day. I am sure nurses and social workers have had the same education and in some respects more responsibility for the outcome of a human life.

Do you User, think the only "professions" are lawyer, banker and doctor?

Posted too soon, I am off to have dinner with my DH who is an Engineer, but that is not a "profession" so I will tell him that.

Yanbu, I'm public sector too, pay freeze for years, yet work load increase, more responsibilities etc.
I'd love to work in a garden centre, but there isn't one where I live

They should just give everyone, from the top to the bottom of the organisation, a £500 per year increase.

"They should just give everyone, from the top to the bottom of the organisation, a £500 per year increase."

So in my organisation that's £80,000 per year plus on costs so c£100k, where does that extra money magically come from?

I can assure you user I consider myself very much a professional thanks how insulting to insinuate otherwise.

Many teachers are not getting much more than the minimum way when the amount of unpaid hours are taken into consideration. The tax credit system also means that those in easier stress free jobs are getting their wages 'topped up' to around that of a profession salary. As the minimum wage rises there will be little incentive to study and train hard for a role that pays similiar to working at Lidl.

YABU. I do understand how it feels hard and unfair to you, as you're struggling to afford the lifestyle you've worked your way towards in the light of a dire set of financial circumstances in this country as a whole. But...turn your attention to the tax dodgers and the corporations "streamlining" people out of jobs in order to remain "profitable" for the shareholders before you knock the lowest economic strata for the precious bit of skimmed milk and not even cream that they've received on the back of this over-used and abused dairy cow.

All I want is for my pay to increase with inflation, I don't think that is an unreasonable ask.

Well that depends - on what you do and for whom.

They manage to do it with pensions, and we just get shafted.
This is relatively recent. In the 1970s state pension rises were linked to increases in earnings. That was abolished by Mrs Thatcher in 1980.

The basic pension as a proportion of average earnings fall from 26% in 1979 to just over 15% in the mid-2000s. Only since 2010 have we had the triple lock, but it hasn't brought pensions back to anywhere like their 1970s proportionate levels.

It's easy to look over the fence and sneer at "wealthy pensioners" but it doesn't bear scrutiny - although governments like us throwing brickbats at each other so we aren't holding their feet to the fire instead.

Oh well, 30p an hour increase is better than nothing.
On a 4 hour shift/ I work pt, I will gain £1.20, over a month that's £24 a month, wow.

I would love to have an extra £24 per month gilly and so would my DH who works full time and hadn't had a single penny rise in 9 years.

If you don't earn what you want then only you can do something about it.

Move jobs, set up a business, take a risk.

I'm a registered nurse so another victim of the yearly 1% pay rise.

£12 an hour. I've heard you can earn £11 an hour working at Aldi.

I've recently sacked the NHS off for agency work - £18 an hour, much more like it!

The NHS is a sinking ship and the NMW just highlights how little health professionals are valued.