So if the Minimum Wage increases...

[missbunnyrabbit]

My own wage in a public sector job seems lower than ever. The article I read suggests the public sector pay freezes will end, but I doubt we'll get such a large pay rise!

Aibu to feel like packing my teacher job in to go and work a minimum wage job instead?

Yanbu but weigh up all the angles
Contracted hours
Pension
Career progression
Physical and mental demands and then make a call if youll be better off.

Ywnbu to do what is best for you

Sounds like a well thought out idea. Best of luck.

My preschool is likely to close, I won’t be able to afford to pay the nursery staff any more money than I already do, unless the government increase the funding rates which I doubt they will. We barely survived last year. We won’t survive this increase.

It's not a race to the bottom. The minimum wage should go up. People can't afford to live.

Minimum wage should go up but the irony is that this increase will just get passed on in costs of goods and services and the increase will just be lost. Together with fuel prices hitting an all time high, there are few benefits to bring on minimum wage.

As a small business owner, I'm all ears as to where this 6.6% is going to come from. And how I then deal with my more skilled staff who are also going to want the same increase.

YANBU. I absolutely don't begrudge anyone a decent wage but whilst I remain more or less wage static in my public sector job were I'm often in confrontational and dangerous situations I do wonder how long it'll be before the financial implications of obtaining a minimum wage job aren't great enough to prevent me from jumping ship. Admittedly I'm only one person so the country won't fall on its knees but if I think like this there'll certainly be others.

@Freddiefox I'm worried about this too. I work in a nursery and my manager was talking to me about this last week, I really think we're in trouble.

When I was a lecturer in the FE sector I got paid £10 per hour with no pension or progression. If I hadn’t already quit then the increase in minimum wage to £9.50 would make up my mind. It’s much less hassle to work at Asda.

Anyway, imo the increase is pointless because they’re going to claw most of it back by increasing National Insurance. The rest will get clawed back by price increases.

It's crap you don't get a pay rise but UKholidaysaregreat is correct imo. Basing your sense of satisfaction with your salary on what people doing "minimum wage" jobs are getting is not a constructive way to look at it. As a population we need to start pushing for changes to other, actually problematic things - bloated CEO salaries, systemic tax avoidance by massive global corporations, the travesty that is the fundamental unaffordability of the housing market, etc.. None are easy to fix though which is why politicians like doing tangible things like raising minimum wage.

[quote skyblueone]@Freddiefox I'm worried about this too. I work in a nursery and my manager was talking to me about this last week, I really think we're in trouble. [/quote]
@skyblueone

At least 90% of my children are funded, I know for a fact that we won’t be able to pay the extra money to pay the minimum wage but also to increase the other qualified staff in line with this.

Unless the funding goes up, but even if it does, the LA take a top slice and we end up with pennies as an increase.

It's all relative. As a small business owner myself I will have to put my prices up in order to cover the increase and hope that my business survives the increase when I compete with "business owners" who are happy to earn £3 an hour. Or my other alternative is I give less hours to staff and work more myself. Neither of those options are particularly helpful to anyone. Big companies can put up prices, smaller businesses cannot always do that. Especially when we have already swallowed huge increases in everything else this year without increasing our prices. My web hosting has gone up 16% alone, not to mention stock.

You shouldn’t be working to feel wealthy compared to the poorest people.

What a bloody stupid thread.

I agree.
It’s great that the minimum wage is going up but other wages aren’t increasing in line with this.
you train and progress in the hope of a higher wage but the effort doesn’t seem worth it when that bridge between is even smaller.

It's a pointless idea, but it's done to help make sure the gullible keep voting tory. This increase means nothing, and with the increases in national insurance next plus any further increases in bills, people will still probably be broke or even more broke.

But the tories will get their votes.

BBC is reporting as "living wage" going up? Is this minimum wage, or is it smoke and mirrors?

effort doesn’t seem worth it

But you have already made the effort.

Do you seriously think that working as a care assistant, stacking shelves in Tesco, working in an Amazon warehouse, is somehow stress free and ‘easy’?

It isn’t. It’s hard, gruelling work, it often involves anti social hours (nights, evenings, weekends) no sick pay, no god forbid death in service benefit, no pension, no enhanced maternity pay, often dealing with very difficult situations and people.

I know there is a lot wrong with teaching and that it’s hard work, but as a minimum you’re on nearly 26,000. Minimum wage on a 40hour week isn’t that.

I can't speak from the perspective of a business owner but I've never understood how someone else getting a fair wage should make any difference to someone already getting more.

Increasing minimum wage is always a good thing. It's just a shame that alongside increasing NI, and already increasing food/utility/food and rent costs this raise in NMW will be absolutely negligible for most.

@Magicalwoodlands

effort doesn’t seem worth it

But you have already made the effort.

Do you seriously think that working as a care assistant, stacking shelves in Tesco, working in an Amazon warehouse, is somehow stress free and ‘easy’?

It isn’t. It’s hard, gruelling work, it often involves anti social hours (nights, evenings, weekends) no sick pay, no god forbid death in service benefit, no pension, no enhanced maternity pay, often dealing with very difficult situations and people.

I know there is a lot wrong with teaching and that it’s hard work, but as a minimum you’re on nearly 26,000. Minimum wage on a 40hour week isn’t that.

This. You sound very snobby op.

@Magicalwoodlands

You shouldn’t be working to feel wealthy compared to the poorest people.

What a bloody stupid thread.

I don't see how it's a stupid thread.

We work for money. People educate themselves and train to get jobs that offer more money. Often those jobs are more stressful and a greater workload etc.

If the jobs that don't need such education or training, and have much less stress and workload, are paid closer and closer to what trained professionals earn, then why would anyone choose to be a trained professional? Unless they genuinely loved the job.

I love a lot of things about my job, but if I am to be paid barely peanuts more than someone in a supermarket, I'd rather do that! Life is not worth the stress (and yes, I have worked in a huge, busy supermarket and it was much much easier than my current job).

YABVU

Most people on minimum wage don’t get sick pay, generous holidays and a great pension!

Why would you give up teaching because people on the lowest wages are set to get a much needed (and still not enough) extra 59p an hour? Your wage will still exceed this by a considerable margin.

However, if you want to give up teaching and can afford £9.50 an hour then go for it. Seems a bit drastic though.

Minimum wage workers aren’t getting over 30% of salary paid into their pensions, unlike Teachers.
Public sector workers usually understand that their sick pay, holidays and pensions are far better and that their ‘lower’ salaries reflect this.

@missbunnyrabbit

My own wage in a public sector job seems lower than ever. The article I read suggests the public sector pay freezes will end, but I doubt we'll get such a large pay rise!

Aibu to feel like packing my teacher job in to go and work a minimum wage job instead?

Yes YABU but hey if you fancy a soul destroying MW job, knock yourself out.

@Magicalwoodlands

effort doesn’t seem worth it

But you have already made the effort.

Do you seriously think that working as a care assistant, stacking shelves in Tesco, working in an Amazon warehouse, is somehow stress free and ‘easy’?

It isn’t. It’s hard, gruelling work, it often involves anti social hours (nights, evenings, weekends) no sick pay, no god forbid death in service benefit, no pension, no enhanced maternity pay, often dealing with very difficult situations and people.

I know there is a lot wrong with teaching and that it’s hard work, but as a minimum you’re on nearly 26,000. Minimum wage on a 40hour week isn’t that.

I have worked in a supermarket. I know people who have worked for Amazon.

These jobs need fewer qualifications for a reason.