Minimum wage increase but will living costs increase and it will make no difference?

[poppyviolet]

I'm on £8.22 an hour. I understand in April this will increase, I believe to £8.75? Do you think that businesses will have to put prices up to be able to afford to pay the staff and it won't make a difference?

I work for minimum wage in retail (in a job that I love, incidentally).

After the last increase everyone’s hours were cut. I imagine the same thing will happen this time. It’s a family business with a dozen stores.

I won’t be too badly affected as we are comfortably off without my job but my colleagues all rely on their wages.

We have to be flexible enough to swap shifts around as there are only five of us so getting a second job wouldn’t work, and I challenge anyone to do a nine+ hour retail shift and then do an evening job.

Unless the govt also introduce some real policies to help the high street retailers then we are all stuffed.

Well, what is the answer otherwise, keep wages low and have other taxpayers subsidise poverty wages via the benefits bill. No thanks.

@Newmetoday

We pay what we can afford and happy to increase every year which we do but the last few jumps have been high. Even the low pay commission saying the current speed of increase is unsustainable.

We are trying to increase our prices but it’s a competitive market.

In addition to loosing hours, we aren’t buying new vehicles, we’re reducing the buildings we rent, and thus rates.

As we are part of a supply chain as we increase our prices where we can - some of our customers haven’t had an increase in years we are trying to force it though but that is also leading to loosing sum, all our customers and their customers need to add that along side the 6% wage increase - higher wages is only leading to higher costs and higher prices.

But hey ho. We go pop and 17 people loose their jobs some of whom have worked for us for 20 years.

@mothertruck3r

The answer was to stick with the original low pay commission plan - which was raising them over a longer period. Trying to get 6% prices increases is almost impossible and really we need 10-15% when you take into account other costs.

So for us it’ll me the owners doing 60-70 hours a week and all the other staff being paid the same as now effectively increase will be offset with hours cut. Unless we get more increases through. But we are nearly at the point of walking away - happily work in a supermarket or somewhere for minimum wage as much less stress and no worry of loosing our house.

Have already had to put some money in to cover the wages - though that is more cash flow issues than a real long term issue.

One good thing with Brexit in our local area there’s a real shortage of people as well so hopefully if we close all our staff will get new jobs.

To me, if you can't afford to pay all your workers enough that on full time hours they wouldn't be entitled to benefits, you either don't have a viable business or you are exploiting people for the profit of others.

This is part of the reason Jeremy Corbyn was so dangerous. He wanted to hike minimum wage right up quickly which wouldnt be sustainable for a lot of smaller companies, meaning job cuts or closing down. It isn't just minimum wage that goes up. We pay considerably higher to our staff but if mw goes up then so does our pay to respect their additional qualifications and training. I'm not saying MW is enough to live on or that it should never be increased but large jumps are hard for smaller businesses, many of whom are already struggling and would have possibly closed already if it wasnt for trying to do their best for their staff. If JC had got his way it would have been the death toll for us and about 4 other businesses I know directly and no doubt many others. (Just to caveat - nurses, carers and childcare professionals dont get paid enough and this should be addressed pronto!)

@Newmetoday No. The business owners on here want to keep their staff employed and preferably a roof over their own heads. Just because you own a company doesn't mean you are rolling in cash Cyril Sneer style! We are doing our best and it's hard and getting harder.

I challenge anyone to do a nine+ hour retail shift and then do an evening job

It is possible. I used to work in Boots, no min wage then. I worked five days a week, inc Saturdays. When they brought in Sunday's I agreed to work them but only as extra as I needed the money, so I did six days a week.
I did all the extra hours I could get, which could be quite a lot at Christmas.
And I worked in a nightclub til two am Fridays and Saturdays.

And I stuffed envelopes at home for another business in the evenings. I got paid something daft like 1p per envelope.

But I needed the money to pay my rent.

This is part of the reason Jeremy Corbyn was so dangerous. He wanted to hike minimum wage right up quickly

His policy was to raise it to £10. Which is exactly the same policy the Tories have.

To me, if you can't afford to pay all your workers enough that on full time hours they wouldn't be entitled to benefits, you either don't have a viable business or you are exploiting people for the profit of others.

This. Low wages with benefit subsidies just keeps zombie companies afloat courtesy of the taxpayer.

It’s more the speed it’s going up. It’s only last year it caught us up and we managed to keep ahead of it just.

Wonder what impact it has on the likes of Tesco massive company minimum margins.

Maybe our business is no longer viable in its current guise.

But conversely it’s low skilled work but we’ve some very highly educated staff who love the no pressure turn up and do the job go home and forget it and the flexibility of the hours. They can pick what hours days the work.

Life’s not just about money and we don’t need to advertise for staff as most of ours come form recommendations for current and former staff so we must be doing something right.

None of our staff claim benefits but then tend to be older. Average age is over 50. Eldest is 70+ youngest is 23.

Should able to post as on holiday.

@VanGoghsDog as I said, it was the speed of his increase which would have crippled sone companies.

@mothertruck3r that isn't what the OP was talking about or what we are discussing. It isn't about keeping people on the bread line it is about prices of things having to be increased to offset the increase of staff labour. But I'm pleased your business is doing well, your margins will be unaffected and your staff wages are so high!

@Obligatorync no one said anything about paying peanuts so they cant afford to live... glad your business is so successful that you dont need to worry though!

Minimum wage is still far behind a living wage. Still losing out.

Low wages with benefit subsidies just keeps zombie companies afloat courtesy of the taxpayer.

Absolutely this. And private landlords are subsidised by the taxpayer, too.

I think we could be heading for a rise in inflation because of Brexit as well. If we don't join the single market and tariffs are applied to all the stuff imported from EU countries, that will put prices up to cover the cost.

And it's not just the goods themselves, but plant, machinery, components involved in production etc.

I am finding that minimum wage is now closing in on professional wages. Prices will still go up, just more people will be hit.

6% increase in NMW & instant email from nursery saying they are putting their prices up 6% in April!

In the shop I work in, I get £8.21 as a sales advisor (it was actually above min wage when I started but when min wage went up mine didn’t).

The assistant manager is on £9 ph.

The manager is on 23k which works out to about £11ph on a 40hr week but she usually works more hrs than that.

So a minimum wage price hike narrows the gap massively. And my company can’t keep up without putting up prices or reducing hours for hourly rated staff.

Perhaps if high street rents and rates were capped it would help.

Prices will end up going up. I work in food manufacturing. We are really struggling. It isn't just the people on minimum wage that we have to increase but everyone else just above it to try and maintain differentials for skills learnt.

If you think about the supply chain to a supermarket - the people who pick/ create the raw product are hit by this, then the manufactures, then the transport company and finally the supermarket itself. All hit by the 6% increase.
In 2 years the rate is likely to be £10 an hour. The money has to come from somewhere.

@Obligatorync

Twisted logic but hey ho.

What is the difference between minimum wage and living wage. When I Google they seem to be the same. How much is living wage, if it is not the same?

@YippeeKayakOtherBuckets. Ikwym. When min wage came in, I was earning 2.5 times the NMW rate. With the latest rise, it will be less than 1.5 x NMW.

Because all our services are commissioned by health, housing, adult social care or DWP, we have had only 2 tiny pay rises in 10 years. To maintain services, the pay scales for new staff were reduced across the board in 2012, and anyone who joined after that is on £2 an hour less than their colleagues who joined later, so they're only a quid or two above NMW.

Staff in Aldi get more than some of my colleagues working with dysfunctional, challenging, vulnerable people, which doesn't seem entirely fair.

"To me, if you can't afford to pay all your workers enough that on full time hours they wouldn't be entitled to benefits, you either don't have a viable business or you are exploiting people for the profit of others."

Which worker are you thinking of? Situations vary so much. The single person under 35 living in a house share wouldn't get direct cash benefits* working full time on minimum wage but the parent of 3 disabled children with a disabled partner would potentially get quite a lot (as they would need more, I'm not suggesting otherwise) with a range in between. What level of situation should one full time wage support as a minimum?

*Obviously they would have access to the other benefits paid by taxes such as medical care, police and fire service cover and the security brought about by a stable government and armed forces but I don't think you are counting those.