To think that lots of people don't understand just how many jobs pay minimum wage.

[TravellingSpoon]

And how many jobs they would consider worthy of higher wages do not get them.

I am a support worker, and we were talking about this in our staff room this morning. Many of us have had similar experiences, people who cannot believe how little we get paid, or that we would do it for such a small amount of money. And we get 19p above the current minimum wage. Similarly with a couple of my colleagues who have backgrounds in nursery.

Sorry, did not mean to specifically target this poster, more the principle that "xxxxxxxxxxxxxx experience" is something you should work for free for.

Not just management. Any kind of experience.

I have given up trying to get a job in pharmacy as I lack experience.

I've lost jobs to volunteers and people who regularly work for free one day a week.

Without working for free, I'm extremely unlikely to get a job.

I'm in retail too...on £9 an hour...i'm desperate to leave as hate working weekends but cant find anything thats not minimum wage.

@Zaphodsotherhead Single people are entitled to benefits, albeit the cut off is low and will vary according to your eligible housing costs. I'd always encourage people to check their entitlement if struggling.

Thanks MrsMaisel but have checked and, yup, not eligible for anything, even though I live in rented accommodation and my earnings quite often don't cover the bills.

I work in an aerospace company on the production floor. I process a lot of parts every day, I have to read engineer drawings, handle dangerous chemicals and fight every day against supervisor decisions that could jeopardise the safety of hundreds of people on a plane potentially. I'm on minimum wage and I hardly make ends meet..it's shit. I got more money cleaning and working in retail but that was zero hours

Back in the early noughties i worked full time in a well known dept store & earned £2.22 an hour. Now i look back & think how shocking that was to pay people so little & sadly the cost of living has risen & the nmw although more than what i got is still shocking.

And as the nmw rises, those jobs which take training/studies/experience are becoming less well paid in comparison as those wages haven't seemed to rise since I was in those full time roles 9 years ago.
Occasionally they will have increased those rates but it's then very close to degree qualified salary and it feels like there's no point in having spent 3 or 4 years and 60k in education.
I've also seen a drop in the going rate of some graduate role salaries in the last 2 or 3 years .

I thonk this is true. I heard a friend talk about another friend, worried she mightnt be able to come to a night away because she "was on shit money, less than 500 a week".
Kept me gob shut

I've seen several job ads which manage to convey the fact they're paying minimum wage as if it was something beneficial or generous FFS.

Yes, I've always thought this. "We pay National Minimum Wage" might sound sort of reasonable, but if they were honest and said "We'd pay you far less if only the government hadn't specifically had to step in and change the law to prevent ethic-less employers like us from exploiting you even more" then it might not sound so benevolent.

As a general rule, whenever a company mentions NMW, the pay is going to be low - even if they're claiming to pay 'above NMW'. Employers who value their employees and pay a fairer living wage never feel the need to refer to NMW, as it's irrelevant to them as a yardstick.

I see the logic in making it lower for under 18s, but what on earth is the idea of paying 21-24yos - many of whom are householders with children and breadwinners - far less? If the thinking is that they won't have as much experience as people over 25s, it's ridiculous logic, as it's not like older people's experience is valued at all by their employers, who will pay them NMW at 25, 35, 45, 55 - always as little as they're legally allowed to whilst the employee works for them.

I'd love to see it become a mark of great public shame when large employers pay huge numbers of their employees NMW and high-level doubts cast on their profitability, viability, sustainability and how well managed they are. An official 'wage warning' should be issued where currently a 'profits warning' would be. Of course, this would almost certainly have a very negative effect on their share prices. At the very least, this would force the fat cat CEOS to come out publicly to go on record that their companies are indeed healthy and in no danger of failure - that they aren't making their huge fortunes off the backs of hard-working people on NMW because they can't afford to pay them more - just that they're too greedy and exploitative to care about paying them any more.

My sister works in a minimum wage job that requires qualifications to be updated various times per year ( her employer pays) but even to get a job in her desired field she had to self fund her first qualifications costing around 2,000£ and do unpaid work experience to get her foot in the door. I think most people think minimum wage jobs are jobs that literally anyone could do and don't require any qualifications which isn't the case for a lot of jobs.

Where I work most staff are on min wage but work long, long hours (60 hour a week contracts not unusual, most are above 50) just to make ends meet.

Most minimum wage jobs are because they do not require any specialist knowledge that cannot be trained within a few days.

The problem with minimum wage is actually makes jobs page less than they would otherwise, because everyone offers NMW, therefore not competing to attract staff.

Not just management. Any kind of experience.

totally agree

I was checking out other jobs that I could do recently. I used to be a Personal Assistant to a managing director of a big compay, so when I saw an admin assistant job come up close to home I was interested.

Until I looked at the wage (little more than NMW) and the job spec, which stated you had to do payroll and know SAGE. Now, when I was a PA, payroll was a whole specific department, not the person who worked the switchboard and made the tea. Seems to me as though companies are trying to get maximum work for rock bottom pay.

Payroll really shouldn't be an 'any other work as requested' add on to admin - it's too important for that! If you want SAGE trained people, then bloody well pay for them!

I remember when admin jobs were seen as being better than retail. I’m thinking back to 2005 when the minimum wage was £5.05 and around £10,500 a year full time. I remember applying for admin jobs that paid 15-18k and of course that seemed a lot more than the paltry minimum wage.

Now I’m looking at admin jobs outside of London and they seem to pay around 18k! Yet someone working retail might be earning 17k.

YANBU, plus the millions who earn very little above the min wage that don’t then get included in stats. I earn 14p an hour above min wage.

Im a night senior carer and get over £10 an hour. Im in charge of 2 other carers and look after 20+ residents. No extra for working nights, no extra for wkends, or extra for specialised care.

Although looking at other care jobs, i do get better money.

@Basketofkittens exactly, how have the higher end admin roles at 18k not gone up in 10-15 years?! and like @Zaphodsotherhead says , you have to be bloody master of all trades to be an admin assistant now, they all used to be split into payroll and hr assistant, accounts admin, team admin, reception, secretary, pa, with wages appropriate now you have to know it all for bog all money/little more than shop assistant pay. I have done most of the roles stated above including various retail and yes retail is not easy but it usually isn't as skilled as some of those above roles.

Until I looked at the wage (little more than NMW) and the job spec, which stated you had to do payroll and know SAGE.

Oh, yes, indeed.

If an employer just levels with you and wants this huge stack of biscuits to be neatly packed into all of these boxes at the lowest possible cost to them, then fair enough.

It's the ones who claim they're looking for 'only the very best person' - somebody with real drive and passion who isn't afraid to hit the ground running and get stuck right in, show dedication and commitment and bring with them a wealth of experience and qualifications - but who somehow think that NMW is an attractive and perfectly fair remuneration for all of these demands.

It saddens me that in the charity I volunteer for all the lowest paid jobs are filled by women.

One of the big challenges is how people move on from minimum wage employment. It seems very challenging to move up for people without a degree or to have training routes.

The other shocker is the gap between the minimum wage and the real living wage.

I think a lot of us do realise, just there is so many in the same boat, car workers, nursery workers, labourers.

And it's not always to do with lack of training or qualifications.

I am a support worker and in my last job we were paid £8.90 and hour. We were not only dealing with very challenging and anti social behaviours (drug and alcohol misuse) but management decided to give us extra duties; book keeping, reviews, all finances, meetings ect whilst supporting the clients everyday needs. Us staff was run raggard and many left within a few months due to the stress. We weren't getting paid more for these extra duties (which were mainly management duties), tbh we weren't getting paid enough for the care we had to provide to the clients and the situations we were put in which could be very dangerous. Management reasoning though was that it would 'Look good on our CV' and increase our skills! But if we did want to get paid more, we could always pick up overtime as they had plenty of it and paid us an extra 5p!

There are so many NMW jobs that surprise me. Also the low level of pay for anything which is considered a "vocation" like it should be done for love not money.

The fact someone thinks that less than £500 a week is shit money is delusional