I believe that the minimum wage should be enough to enable a working couple to feed and clothe a family of four and keep a roof over their heads.

[Mamarsupial]

I don’t think I am BU for a moment, interested to see how many agree with me.

I think that the company minimum wage should be in line with the company top wage - and also subject to a reasonable national living wage. So you can't get these massive profits at the top, huge dividends and giant salaries for the cream at the top, without adequately and fairly paying those making them all the money. Might help with those smaller and mid companies not having to jack prices up, but stopping the government subsiding those big cats at the top of big business.

I fucking hate our country right now.

When I say minimum wage I don't mean a similar amount if you take into account the bank of england inflation account calculator. I mean his salary probably wasn't the lowest salary you could get in 1960. I was a child in the 60s and my friends whose parents were on minimum wage type jobs definitely didn't live in nice houses in a nice area or have holidays. They lived in poverty in tiny houses with outside toilets and no bathroom.

They will have gained skills and experience! Jobs like caring for example are definitely NOT unskilled. They will have picked up many skills working as a carer for 10 years, and quite frankly the pay should rise along with those skills. I would suggest an incremental pay rise for each year of service within a pay band just like what happens in the nhs.

@Shortpoet amen to that!! The biggie is housing costs particularly in southern half of uk and in some areas of higher demand in the Midlands and north too.

the median household income in the uk after tax is 31K in 2021
37.5 hours at minimum wage of 9.50 is £18525 or £16189 after tax
so 2 x fulltime jobs at NMW is median household income,
that means 50% of households are below that, now obviously some of those households are pensioners and single people and people who maybe own their house outright
31K if you have no mortgage or rent ( just maintenance ) and no childcare is obviously plenty
31k when your housing costs are 10Kand childcare is 5k is not so good

personally I think NMW should be enough for decent basic housing , children sharing a room is fine healthy food enough heat, transport to get to work school shops etc, clothing, enough to save for basic replacements like washing machines kettles, a modest christmas and birthdays a smart phone as people need it but they don't need an iphone 14 but a motorola or similar android phone that lasts 3-5 years, a tv licence or netflix not both
I don't think it is the job of the state to ensure NMW will provide holidays cars alcohol cigarettes eating out etc
it is also obvious that some parts of UK have a cheaper cost of living than others, I do not think NMW can solve this

That doesn't happen in the NHS though, band 3 for example, you start at the bottom, work for two years, go to the top and then that's it. No further increments.

What really frustrates me is that I get MW and I don't earn enough to be able to afford my child's nursery fee. I'm working part time and studying full time so child goes into nursery a day more than I work so I can use that day as a study day and I don't get any financial support from University so I'm essentially working to be in debt and it's the most frustrating thing

For those doubting what I’m saying about how much my Grandad earned in relation to today, this is an interesting read. It suggests that in 1960 the “average” manual worker wage was £14 a week and that a “good”
annual salary was about £1k and the division between a minimum wage type job and a professional type one (they cite the ONS). That he earned slightly more than average checks out because he was working in Central London.

To the PP who said that average worker couldn’t get a mortgage as a non-professional… I don’t know what to tell you, as they did. They had no extra income. My Nana had a bit of a side hustle making Christmas crackers at home (this sounds absurd but is true) but it literally paid peanuts and the money went straight to her own parents (she was the oldest of 10 kids and the youngest was still a baby, so they struggled. The Christmas cracker money was to help them out).

Brilliant point. I totally agree.

I agree but I think the answer isn't just about wages, it's about affordable housing.

I don't know what proportion of male workers in 1960 were manual workers; I'm presuming substantially more than today. Today, 7% of the workforce earns minimum wage. So if your grandad was earning slightly more than the average for a manual worker, it seems to be extremely unlikely he was earning the equivalent of minimum wage. He won't have been in the bottom 7% and simultaneously earning over the average male manual wage, will he? (And given women were paid less, presumably the actual lowest 7% were mostly women, earning even less.)

back in the 1960's housing was a lesser % of wage but food was a much greater percentage; food and clothing is much cheaper today relative to wages however the relative savings on food do not compensate for the huge increase in housing in many parts of UK, there are though still quite a few places where you can get a 2 bed terrace or flat for under 100K, they are not all dumps some are very nice but they are not in the south they are either in the North parts of the Midlands, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland and sometimes rural

Is it relevant?

HerReputationMadeItDifficultToProceed

No-one’s doubting that your granddad earned £15 a week in 1960. And as you’ve shown yourself that was £1 per week above the average male manual wage. But if he earned more than average wage, he can’t also have been earning minimum wage. For everyone who earned more, there would have been the equivalent number of men who earned less. And that is not even taking into account work done by women, or men doing jobs, like retail, that were more commonly done by women.

The main thing that your grandad’s wage was greater in proportion to the equivalent today is London housing costs!

www.retrowow.co.uk/social_history/60s/how_much_did_things_cost.html

Interesting site comparing the cost of living through the decades.

When I was born in the early 1969's, my dad was earning around £9 a week. My mum was at home - no automatic right to return to work after having a baby back then - and we lived in a council flat. We were not well off, but had what we needed. I don't think that my dad was unusual in the amount he earned, probably more realistic for the time than a manual worker on £15. I don't think we can really compare mw today, to low wages then as there was so much less 'stuff' to be had. Only two, later three TV channels, covered by the cost of the TV licence. Most people didn't have cars, phones etc (remember when we did eventually get a phone, in the 79's, there was a six month wait to have the line installed), so it's were a lot lower for those items. People could survive on lower wages because the woman's in one was ignored by mortgage providers etc.
I do agree with OP that a couple on MW today should be able to pay their bills and living costs without needing top up benefits.

Two people working full time on min wage is around 3k a month. That's the same as one person on 50k . Where I live, in Wales , that's plenty to live a comfortable life! Rents for family homes are around 700 a month. Also, there are bloody loads of jobs! I know two Ukrainian women earning this working in a factory. Work is boring but they are delighted with the lifestyle it affords and are booking holidays!

It was also common for working-class men to do overtime, which was paid more per hour.

But if you don't live somewhere cheap, or you have children and therefore childcare bills it quickly becomes not enough.

Round here £700 gets a bedsit or shared house not a family home. Double that is more realistic.

You forget that Ukraine is poor so obviously the wages will be seen as pretty high to those ladies.

Indeed. Polish people came to the UK in large numbers because even on minimum wage the money they sent back home went a long way there. Who did the jobs they left behind in Poland? Ukrainians.

The ladies are single parents so 85% of childcare is covered. I think that 3k a month is plenty to live off . Even in London you get HB if your rent is high . In Wales or the North East you are laughing. Especially in these tight knit communities parents often help out with childcare.