to find this retail job underpaid?

[lill72]

Hi, I have been offered a job in.a high end retail store - is £9 per hour in London too low? I don't really know.

How much experience do you have and how old are you?

£9 an hour is good for retail

£9 is good!
You'll need to claim benefits to survive on retail wages.

It is a terrible wage but then retail waged are terribly low. Employers are to blame as they know the rest of us will fill the gap through the benefits system. But we are also to blame as we want things dead cheap. Vicious circle

It's all going to come to a crunch soon.
If you want goods manufacturered and processed and sold in the UK. Then you have to realise you need to pay those who do it a wage to match the costs of living in the UK.

The government recon the minimum wage is £7.83. As Mps earn about £74,000 a year what do they know?

Unfortunately that is par for the course for a retail assistant role in Central London. Complies with the legal National Living Wage (£7.83 as already mentioned) but below the voluntary London Living Wage (just gone up to £10.55).

£9 an hour is bloody good for retail, which is notoriously low paid.

However you don't need to claim benefits if you earn a retail salary - it totally depends on your lifestyle and whereabouts you live in the country!

It's better than what I was paid the last time I worked in retail, I got the £7.83ph and given a measly 16 hours per week, spread out over 4 days. Never again!

Most retail jobs are low paid though and like mentioned above you'll likely need to claim (your entitlement) of benefits alongside to keep you afloat.

I'd have been happy with £9ph but would still need to supplement with top up benefits in order to survive (I live in London too)

Are you getting commission on goods sold given it's a high end store?

Last year in retail I was earning £7.50 an hour I think (approx)
This year different store and £8.75 which is considered high, I don't know of any others that pay that outside of London
I'm late 40s

Lush pay the London living wage.

It’s good for retail why are you asking ? I ha r had a load of u well paid jobs.. if you are questioning £ then I question your asking..

I used to get pad £6.42 for retail when I was 18, everyone else was on at least £8.50. Quite a large town too so living prices quite high + I was renting so hated being on such a low wage just because of my age :(

Always annoys me with the age thing- we're all doing the same job, why should someone age 15-21 get paid significantly less?

TK Maxx pay it too

DD gets £5.90 an hour

Thanks for all the responses. I've come from another career which was earning a lot more but now want to change careers and do VM so I thought retail would help. Sorry I really have no idea of pay but went to the interview and seems a lot of pressure to sell to celebrities and royalty (yup) but there was no suggestion of any commission.

What does the voluntary wage mean? in London?

Sorry for being clueless!

Should I ask for the London living wage?

What's VM?

Also asking what VM is.

Visual Merchandising

No, you should not ask for the London living wage - if you actually want the job. The store will have a pay scale/policy and they are not going to award you a different wage to their other employees. You just need to decide whether retail work is for you.

lill72

Not all shops let staff do VM, that might be more important to check rather than the pay

I earn £7.83... on the fucking nose

Its a legal minimum (insert name of shop) not a target!!

Oh

Although my dad was absolutely convinced that all retail staff get £10 an hour

And a fair few customers think we get commission

I work in a retail shop and get £8 an hour, I'm not in London though. I would love £9 an hour.