To be shocked that for most of my working life I have been paid below NMW?

[crunchymint]

Local Government has a number of pay scales. These used to run from 1 upwards. Lots of women who did not supervise staff were paid at scale 5 or below. Now days NMW starts at Scale 6. Scale 1-5 have been abolished as they are below MNW.

You haven’t been paid below the nmw,

One - most LG’s now pay “the living wage” which is more than the NMW.

And the minimum wage has gone up every year.

If you genuinely believe you have been paid below the NMW - please approach your union or Human Resources. As this is against the law.

How old are you and how much were you paid? I don't understand how they were actually paying below the NMW.

Have you remembered to allow for inflation?

No I know I was not paid below the NMW. It did not exist then. My point is that I and many others were paid for many years at a level that no longer exists in Local Government. I did not think I was low paid at the time. Those on Scale 1 and 2 were low paid.

Thanks huck, that makes more sense. Lots of people don't understand the difference between the Living Wage and NMW.

TeenTimes - The scales go up, that is why I have used the scales, not the figures I was actually paid.

NMW was introduced over 18 years ago. Are you talking about what you earned prior to that?

I simply looked at the JNC pay scales, had to for a reason. Scale 1-5 no longer exists.

And I am id 50's and have worked for 37 years.

I think we all got paid crap money when we started out.

However my council still starts from Grade 1, which is £17961 per annum or £9.57 - see attached.

Of course they no longer exist, but when they were being paid, they were within the scale of NMW.

a lot of employers didn’t move the scales up.

This is common. The pay scales then become redundant as they fall below the legal minimum for pay.

You have not been underpaid, but if you think you have, please see your union.

Before the NMW, you may have been paid less, but that was not unlawful, and lots of people were.

This is why unions are so vitally important.
They lobbied for the NMW 18 years ago.
The now lobby for the living wage, which is why you will find that so many unionised work forces and now living wage employers.

I have not been underpaid. Does no one actually read threads properly?

I was paid between scale 3 and 5 for 17 years, so hardly just starting out. And some of those jobs required a lot of skill and responsibility.

I can see where you are coming from. I totally agree with the minimum wage (I don't agree with it being called a living wage when it is no such thing but that is a different matter) but it has done interesting things to pay scales.

I work in early years and my place of work has stopped employing level 2 practitioners because our level 3 practitioners have moved on to minimum wage because the rate of minimum wage increases have been faster than regular wage increases. The income is fixed so there is no money for pay increases for anyone beyond what is legally required.

This means that as the years go by there is a decreasing then non-existent gap in pay between staff with different amounts of experience.

And I have always supported unions. Christ I remember some of the truly terrible wages below NMW. The equivalent now in real terms of £3.50 an hour for over 18 year olds.

Just surprised that if it was now, I would have been paid a lot more for those 17 years.

Oddboots Yes when my last workplace adopted the real living wage, one worker was angry that the differentials between her and the cleaner were relatively small. She had a skilled job.

Well
You are now completely contradicting your thread title.
But crack on.
Was only trying to help.
Won’t bother again.

Local government pay scales are negotiated with trade unions and frequently updated and reviewed. I would be extremely surprised if you had been paid below NMW at any point since its introduction!