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?

A higher minimum wage in London is not much different to the NHS, civil service etc offering London Weighting - assuming they still do?

If that occured London wouldn’t get any of it’s jobs filled. Most regular commuters to London come from the north (many from Manchester or Leeds).

Haven't got time to read 11 pages so this has probably been mentioned.

There is something called the national living wage which is based on region. It's not enforceable but under social value companies can chose to adopt it to make their company more favourable.

Lol no. By all means have higher wages in more affluent areas but no it shouldn't be reduced in other areas? Company's could choose to pay more, yes the gov could enforce it but wages don't come out of one set pot to be divvied up.

Frankly I think you've written a very selfish self centered post, you may be struggling to cover costs on whatever wage you're on but don't you think us cheapies in the north are too? Myself and dp only just cover all costs with some left to do a couple of nice things. Sorry, should we earn less so someone else can CHOOSE to live in a nicer area in a bigger house? Naff off

1. have you lost your mind?
2. how would me paying £7ph impact an employer in London paying more? Or are you suggesting top up his wage bill?

If you don't like living in London, move. Don't make the rest of us suffer.

Yeah, just what the poorest, hardest working people in our country need, a race to the bottom

Yes that's just what the poorest and hardest working members of our society need, a race to the bottom

Min wage is low even in the north. You can live off it but but you will still get benefits if you have children.

Decreasing it is not the answer.

Paying people in the south more just concentrates the money down there - the problem is house prices not wages. The rest of the cost of living is the same (gas/electric/water/food)

YABU - we live in the North, just near Newcastle/Sunderland. I work for my LA so am paid a 'living wage' but I still only just scrape by with very, very little left over and often end up borrowing from next month to make up the shortfall. We get by and have everything we need, our bills are necessary bills not luxuries. Reducing our 'minimum wage' or removing our living wage, would put us in the food bank queue.

You do realise that 'minimum wage'is just that, the minimum an employer can pay you.... it's not us Northerners fault that those employed in London aren't paid enough!

Are you for real??? I lived in Edinburgh and my rent for a 1 bed flat with a shower room not even a bath room was £650!!! Couldn't afford to buy in edinburgh if I wanted to, so moved to glasgow and saved for 5 years both myself and my husband to buy our house which believe me was not cheap and I don't live in the centre of Glasgow centre either! Pay should increase in line with cost of living but sadly it doesn't leaving the poor to get poorer everywhere not just London!

It may be a choice to live IN London but a lot of the south is way more expensive than up north which isn’t really a choice. I can’t just up and move county away from all my family and friends and kids schools etc. For example where I live it’s £900pcm upwards for most bed properties. We ideally need a 3 bed but won’t be getting one for a while because it’s out of our budget. I actually no longer work because the childcare round here is £1200 per month upwards per child and I was only on minimum wage so it just wasn’t going to happen. My husband just about earns enough to pay the bills but we have zero luxuries and we haven’t ever had a family holiday. In the 12 years we’ve been together my husband and I have never been abroad or on more than a camping trip together because we just can’t afford it. I’m literally chomping at the bit for the kids to be older so I can work also and ease things for us financially. I definitely think there should be some sort of living wage assessment for each county. I was absolutely amazed when I went up north that you can buy a 3 bed house for less than you can get a 1 bed flat down south.

You don't actually know what it's like up North do you? Try having a council and hospital structure that are both amongst the worst in the country, a town that's a total shit-tip, sky-high unemployment which means that most employers get round what's supposed to be the minimum wage by employing casual labour on zero-hours contracts etc etc.

How about looking at the pay of those that are earning way beyond minimum wage if you want a fairer society?
In this day and age the 'haves' still have the 'have-nots' at each others throats whilst protecting their own interests. When will people wake up?

Also just wanted to point out that I work for an accounting firm who pay their London staff a much higher salary than regional staff and they also get shorter work days . . Because apparently only londoners need to travel from outside the city to get into work!

Ifailed

has it not occurred to you that much of the areas you listed were rural before people 'invested' in them?

How far back are you looking?

Next you'll be reminding us that Lincoln was once the capital of England.

I often used to see this expressed in job adverts as London weighting. Did it apply to more London-based jobs than just the Civil Service or NGOs? Of course, it's been many years since I had to look at job adverts but it seems the principle's been accepted for a very long time.

I don't see why it shouln't be applied to the NLW as well. Mind you, economists are very well versed in economically justifying the socially unjustifable, it does seem like it's their only skill but what do I know...

Nobody has to live anywhere...but at the end of the day people tend to live where their communities, friends, support networks etc are. Be that London or Hull.

What about Scotland?

Northern Ireland?

Having said that, if you're in Hull you can head to Brian for the Yoni massage so that's a bit of a perk.

Unfortunately it is already like that

OP - offensive on so many levels I'm not even going to go there. And if you need to ask why, then add ignorant to the list of failings.

What should happen, for the benefit of EVERYONE, is - increase minimum wage to = Living Wage x 2.that way everyone has a decent life reflective of the fact we are one of the world's richest nations. We would practically eradicate poverty. There'd be more disposable income around so more spending so better economy FOR All. And there's be a huge gain for govt funds as they wouldn't be needed to prop up the unnecessary poverty which working people live in. More for those truly in need - those too ill or unable to work, the NHS, education.

Win win for all. Except, of course, the despicable greedy (in) humans who make money from others misery and loss - most of the current govt. who sell off our services from right under our noses. Who ensure they will make £££££££s from Brexit. Who funnel off NHS contracts to their mates, and spouses and so on. Who have turned education - the education of our nation - into a commercial enterprise. And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.

And hopefully, it would cap the disgusting, abominable and totally vulgar salaries some people earn.

I sincerely hope this was posted to rile people up as opposed to you really thinking this way. It's a horrible nasty way to look at life...

To be honest OP, I like that you’ve got a unique take on it and aren’t simply touting ‘minimum wage should be £20ph for everyone!!!’ - whilst blatantly ignoring that should this happen inflation/the economy would swiftly wipe out the difference 🙈😂 one of my favourite things on MN is watching all of the poster who genuinely think universally raising minimum wage would mean they had way more money 🙈😂😂

However, you’re removing all Insentive for people to migrate within the country- you must see the logic in that. If it’s not more affordable to live in less desirable areas then why the hell would anyone live there? You’d end up with places like Hull being a ghost town whilst places like London or Oxford would be OVER RUN! I suspect it would also create anamosity between ‘local’ and those migrating in, its a short fall to ‘London jobs are for London born!’ Types of right wing groups and people facing hate based on where they were born/ now choose to live.

You’d also struggle to attribute prices per region as like you say Hull is a shit hole whilst places like Harrogate and York are some of the most expensive in the country (regular family houses starting at 400k-500k) but both of these places are in Yorkshire an hour or so drive appart?

This happens all over the country- so unless you want to allocate per city/ town then your idea is laughable. Also shouldn’t people receive less if they work rurally rather than in cities?

🙈 ‘London weighting’ is already applied to the vast majority of salaried jobs and increases the wages of those working In London by (roughly) 10-25% i think that’s probably enough for those who are choosing to live in a very expensive area.

I think this is a crazy idea as you choose where you live. If you choose to live in London you have certain advantages such as nice museums and cultural sites etc. If you choose to live in Hull the advantages are that it is cheap. You make a choice. No one forces you to live in London.

Fuck off.

Everybody should be beside a fair living wage for their work. This is worked out to be £9 something and £10 something in London, reflecting the higher cost of living. Wages are paid by companies not out of the benefit system so if company A in Hull pays less it doesn’t free up money for Company B to pay their staff in Indonesia’s. But business have in effect had a massive taxpayer subsidy for years as the government has topped up poverty wages with benefits and tax credits. It’s high time people were paid a living wage wherever they live

London get so many benefits the rest of the UK don’t enjoy. Try catching a train between Manchester and Liverpool and you will realise how there is a massive lack of investment compared to London/Se. The spending per capita museums/the arts in London is huge compared to elsewhere. Spending per pupil for London children exceeds other places in the UK. How much more do Londoners want?