Min wage should be lower up north to make it higher down south.

[Witchofwisteria]

Hear me out. Minimum wage should be given out on more of a regional basis. I think this would help spread the wealth and prevent poverty in such crushingly expensive places like London?

Example: If you live in Hull minimum wage should be £7ph but if you live in London it should be £15ph. Purely because you can rent a lush 3 bed house in Hull for £400-£600 pcm but in London (rougher areas and outskirts) it would be £1800+ at least.

Seems daft to keep increasing minimum wage nationwide when some areas can clearly get more for their money and therefore require less money to live a reasonable life and some require more! (London needs fast food staff, retail workers and cleaners too!) I think something similar with benefits should also happen but I don't know enough about the ins and outs of universal credit to think about the adjustments required.

Thoughts?

YABU, no one has to live in London, it’s a choice.

Minimum wage isn’t funded out of one pot.

Business could chose to pay their staff more - the minimum wage just forces them to pay a floor level.

Personally I’d rather that business paid lower paid staff more and reduced the ridiculous gap between those at the top and those at the bottom.

Otherwise the state has to continue to effectively subsidise the poverty wages, set by businesses, in the form of benefits etc.

And all the while, those in benefits are the ones vilified for sponging (when most of them are actually fucking working)

You have a good argument. But many people would just say... move to Hull if you want a lush 3 bedroom house and more for your money.

I don't think taking from already poor people is the way forwards.

And they say there's no such thing as a North/South divide

Then even MORE people would move to London and the rents would go up even MORE.

It’s a total non starter due to the law of demand and supply. Sorry.

YABU, no one has to live in London, it’s a choice

So only rich people should live in London?

Follow that logic through please.

Or everyone could just be paid a living wage....

Interesting concept, but as purple says no one has to live in London

I'm not sure you've got the ratios quite right there but yanbu. There should be regional variation. There already is the London living wage but I don't think it reflects the house price/rent differences that you highlight.

London and the south east (and other high cost areas) need people to do the minimum wage jobs too!

How does this work? Everyone isn’t paid out of one giant wage pot

My friend works in a chain restaurant whilst at uni in London then in South Wales when she goes home and she gets paid a higher wage at the London one. Don’t know if it’s the norm or just that chain.

I think it would be a fucking disaster to divide minimum wage by area though.

£15/hr isn't going to get you a naice house for £1800/month either!

It's a choice. Live in London vs. don't live in London. Nobody gets shot for carrying their possessions across the M25 - it's not a guarded border.

Because everyone from the north is worth less?

I’ve just done a quick Rightmove search. I can’t find any ‘lush’ 3 bed houses in Hull for £600

"No one has to live in London" is such a ridiculous argument I'm cringing for the people who've even put it forward.

I would get paid more in London. As a teacher I think the salary is about £3000 more expensive to account for the cost of living.

Wow just wow.

So it would be fair for worked in Tesco Branch A in London, to be paid considerably more than Tesco Branch B up north, for doing the same job?

Nope, it wouldn't be fair across chain shops unfortunately. Could see it resulting in a lot of strikes or high staff turnovers

YABU, no one has to live in London, it’s a choice

So if you were born in London, grew up there, and your friends and family live there, but you don’t make enough to afford life there, it’s just tough luck and you should just up and move potentially miles away?

In the NHS you earn extra if you work in London, I think the same is true for teachers.

It's a choice. Live in London vs. don't live in London. Nobody gets shot for carrying their possessions across the M25 - it's not a guarded border.

I actually LOL'd at this

or....OR the government, both centrally and at regional levels could invest more in infrastructure OUTSIDE of London to make other cities attract some of the wealth and investment London currently enjoys.

@Lovestonap say it louder for the people in the back!

The only argument I can see in favour of this is that it might encourage more businesses to move north, thus creating more job opportunities in areas where employment is low.

But I don't think it's the way forward. We need employers to offer a living wage, over and above the minimum wage - a living wage might justifiably be area-weighted, but until the minimum wage reaches the level of a living wage, it shouldn't be reduced.

I honestly don't know if I agree but I used to work for a northern based National company. My counterparts in Newcastle could afford to buy 2 bed flats. I could only afford to rent a bedsit where I lived in Surrey (where I was born and bred). Not sure that was fair.