@Morgysmum
One thing you need to take into account. A lot of minium wage, is also zero hour. So you don't get, sick pay, you don't get holiday pay, yoy might get 40 hours a week, or yoy might get 8 hours, can you cover your rent/mortgage on 8 hours at £9:50?
This. I used to work in a bar and before I was a supervisor there, I was on a zero hours contract. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was studying at the time so I had my student loan and this job topped up my loan so I was “ok” financially. I could afford rent, few takeaways a week, nights out, clothes, etc. It was basically spending money for fun as a student.
But if I wasn’t a student, therefore having that loan, that job wouldn’t have kept be afloat at all. I’d have barely made rent and groceries. There’s no way I could have afforded bills.
Over summer, when all the students went home from the city, I had two 5 hour shifts a week. In the Christmas period, I had 6 a week, easily anything from 8-12 hours long. This included Boxing Day and NYE. They were non negotiable. We all worked these shifts. And the shifts were fucking horrible. Sold out club nights, easily 2000 patrons in. Add alcohol and, unfortunately on occasion, drugs, into the mix, and you can imagine the chaos. Fights, vomit/shit/piss/other bodily fluids to clean up. Broken glass and spills made it a health and safety nightmare so you spent your entire shift running from place to place to avoid accidents from happening because walking just wasn’t quick enough. My hearing went funny after a couple of years of working there because wearing ear plugs meant you couldn’t communicate with staff properly, and the heat of the club while you’re running around made you feel dizzy at times. We often finished up at 4am in the morning after spending at least an hour cleaning the venue down top to toe, with all the grim things that came with it.
Plus, it was physically hard work. I don’t think people realise how heavy full kegs are, for example.
And, like most other NMW jobs, rotas were put up on the Saturday night if we were lucky for shifts beginning on the Sunday. Yep, the next day. I remember vividly having one of my managers ringing me on Sunday night wondering where the fuck I was because they changed the rota later on the Saturday shift (ie the day before) and because I hadn’t thought to check a rota twice in one day, I had no idea I was in. So, I frantically had to get dressed and rush over there.
Holiday pay was a lump sum whenever they could be arsed paying you it. We didn’t get payslips for months at a time. Pay was often wrong so you’d have to sit and work it out to the penny then present the evidence to your manager who would maybe front you your money early, if they were in the mood. People got sacked due to management’s mistakes (stock results wrong, assumed people were giving out free drinks so sacked them in front of everyone). Yep, in front of everyone. About 30 of us in the room watching this happen. And how were they sacked? “We’re sorry we’re going to have to let you go”?
No no. Try “get your coat and fuck off then”.
I guarantee every single person who worked there would take a teaching job over that shithole any day of the week. I quit, eventually, after a new manager decided that I was a prime target to bully because I was a female supervisor and he was a misogynistic pig. Couldn’t complain to our main manager because he had already tried it on with one of the girls (he had a wife) and was similarly pervy.
But, hey. Welcome to the NMW life when you’ve worked in a bar. I swear, for me to go back to that job now, you’d have to pay me at least £30 an hour. It was fucking horrendous. So yep, they definitely deserve a pay increase. It’s why I always tip when I’m out. Even though, I know, they’ll probably take half the wages anyway to cover any “losses”. But it’s the least I can do, having lived it and understood it. Fucking woeful.