Argos/Sainsburys - Scrooging bastards!

[Ruffian]

Ds is working at Argos who apparently are now owned by Sainsburys. He gets less than minimum wage due to being 18 despite being expected to everything that an older person would be doing.

He has been put on the rota to work Boxing Day 7 hours. For this he will get time-and-a-half pay so it works out as an extra £20 for coming in on one of the most important public holidays of the year.

AIBU to think this is taking unacceptable advantage? Surely it should be double pay at least??

If the minimum wage rises, bosses will invest in automation and jobs will be lost

So we just accept that no matter how much we work it won’t be enough to pay rent & buy food?

Nancy
I have clients who earn around £20k a year and manage to rent whole houses and raise families.
The current mental cost of housing needs to be addressed
but massive wage inflation is not the way.

The point of a minimum wage is that it should not be the average.
Currently 50% of adults earn less than £19,000 a year
the minimum should be around 70% of median
so around the current level.

How does anyone raise a family on £20k a year? They must also get tax credits & top ups? My point is that if you work full time you shouldn’t need to claim anything - employers should be paying enough & not relying on the govt to subsidise their wage bill.

He is self employed on around 20k.
His missus makes about 7 k
So they are above the tax credits limit
They are in a shared ownership house.

They are not unusual

I'm working Christmas Eve and Boxing Day in a well known toy shop. I'm mid 30s and we don't get time 1/2

Shared ownership on £27k round here would get you a dog kennel!

Although on £20k he is on quite a bit more than minimum wage or working more than a 40 hour week.

40 hours min wage is £15600 a year. £4400 is a lot of money when your earning are that low

@Biggreygoose
Not on 15hr a week contracts you can't
on 15hr per week contracts the figure is £15210 per annum.
And there are lots of women who are on those type of contracts because they have kids to take care of etc.

And earning about £35,000 per annum will just about get you on the housing market, so notice most will never be able to get on it, cos they just can't earn enough to be able to and not because they are lazy or not hard working but because the system is against them being able to..

What people need is a living wage, not a wage set at a poverty level..
Who the fuck set it at a poverty level?

@LunasSpectreSpecs

Don't start with the "tory government" rubbish. I was a part timer in Debenhams in 1999 and worked late on CHristmas Eve and easrly on Boxing day without any premium. Standard in retail.

I worked in Debs as well, started end of 2000. Bank Holidays were double time, though the store I worked in only started opening on Boxing Day a few years ago - offered triple time the first year then just normal pay the year after.

Things have certainly gone backwards for workers. I remember when I started work at 17 back in the early 80s I was on less than the others, when I turned 18 my boss thought I would get a higher hourly rate, but not the adult rate yet which was at 21. But it turned out the rules had changed, so that at 18 I got the full adult rate.

Now this has all been turned around again. Young people can't get equal benefits either I believe, like housing benefits. And of course many of them are burdened with massive student loans. Young people are being screwed over.