To ask for a pay rise under these circumstances?

[thursnc]

I'm barely surviving on the money I'm currently on so a pay rise would be a great help. I'm really conscious of what my bosses think of me and don't want to appear cheeky!

So, my bosses (generally) pay minimum wage. I however, I am overqualified for my position as I have a degree which relates directly to my field. For this reason I get paid ever so slightly more than the minimum wage required for my age.

So I'm 21. Minimum wage for me would be £7.05 per hour. Because of my qualifications they put me on £7.50 PH. Minimum wage is now increasing to £7.38 PH. So all of my colleagues without degrees, the ones on MW see an increase, where as nobody has mentioned anything to me about my wage going up and I don't want to miss out!

I worked really, really hard to get a first in my degree and am proud of that! I do a lot for my setting that other employees do not do. I write reports for our children for community paediatricians, educational psychologists, outreach services, social workers and lots of other different agencies that some of my children are involved with. I also attend lots of multi agency meetings relating to SEN and Child Protection for some of my children, these can be extremely daunting! Especially when the other professionals there are much older and more experienced. I do my best, do my bit, say what I need to say to get the best for the child/family and am often complimented by the other professionals there on how well I came across. I drive myself to all of these meetings, my room leader has been to one or two in the past, she doesn't drive but always gets her taxi paid for by our boss where as I have never been reimbursed for any petrol I have used driving all over my large city for meetings.
I feel that if I made the point of all the extra things I do to my boss, he will get a little bit defensive and say that any other member of staff would do that too given the chance. Which is true I guess, but it does only seem to be me doing all of these things, other members of staff don't do any of that! I do really enjoy this part of my job, and wouldn't want them to take that away from me.

Am I within my rights to ask for a small pay rise? I don't mean anything major, I would be happy with £8ph and wouldn't really expect any more than that. Am I asking too much? Does anyone have any tips on how to ask or what to say? Like I said I really don't want them to think I'm being cheeky, so be honest!
Thank you!

It's bloody hard work, extremely stressful, thankless and horrifically underpaid.

This is going to sound harsh, but welcome to the world of work, by all means ask for a pay rise (and you should IMO), with the caveat of having another route if you get knocked back, but do not use that as one of your arguments.

In my honest opinion OP, you’re making a big mistake staying where you are.
If it’s 1-2 years for experience in the field that you couldn’t get otherwise, then fair enough.
However, if you’re staying any longer than that, especially if it’s only because “it’s an ok job and I don’t really know where I want my life to go...” then you need to sit down and make some serious choices.
If you stay in a job like that for more than a couple of years and then expect to jump up to a graduate position, you may struggle to get an employer to take you seriously. My initial impression of such a candidate would be - didn’t want to do this initially, not committed, wants immediate reward rather than working towards a profession, willing to work for a pittance so if we do employ then we can pay under going rate, it’ll still be a rise. Apologies if you’re absolutely sure this doesn’t apply in your field.
Yes you’re young, but graduate positions go to the young. Make some choices about your profession and start working towards them. You can change your mind along the way if your choice isn’t right but I really don’t think you should stay on this job.
As for the rise, ask of course but I doubt they’ll give it to you. The position doesn’t require a degree; you need to find one that does.

@HPandBaconSandwiches thanks I really appreciate hearing your views it's really helpful!
I graduated last Summer and said I'd give it 1 year. That was to give me chance to gather 1 years full time experience to go together with my precious 3 part time years (part time while at uni).
So I've almost completed the year and am now looking at other jobs. Grad schemes aren't really a thing in my sector (as far as I'm aware, I haven't seen any anyway) so that's not a huge worry for me.