to remind people that the minimum wage was introduced by the Labour Government - and all the Tories have done is rebrand it as the Living Wage

[cakeorwine]

National Minimum Wage Act 1998 - Wikipedia

The Living Wage - which is the minimum pay someone who is 23 or above can get is going up to £11 an hour.

Jeremy Hunt to confirm national living wage to rise to £11 an hour - BBC News[

""Since we introduced [the national living wage], nearly two million people have been lifted from absolute poverty," Mr Hunt is expected to say.
"That's the Conservative way of improving the lives of working people. Boosting pay, cutting tax."
"

Excuse me - you rebranded the minimum wage, so don't take any credit for introducing it.

I do wish someone would pull the Conservatives up on this when they try to take credit for it.

@BarbaraofSeville start with how much a single person needs to live then family's cut their cloth accordingly.
If you need uc to live you aren't being paid properly.

Your references are both for 2022. Things are moving on fast. We've secured new trade deals in 2023 and the UK economy is moving on faster than in the EU block plus in EU they are now paying even more money. We've avoided that and we'd have been hit hard as one of their few net contributors.

£11 is a disgrace it should be at least £15

Have you not noticed that each time the government meddles with new LL legislation it results in more LL selling up. This leaves fewer btl properties and so rents go up.

The difference between NLW and NMW is that the minimum is the legal minimum wage that can be paid to an individual, it is not intended to be the amount that is required to live independently. People may be supported by family or eligible for benefits. The minimum living wage is higher than NMW as a metric of the minimuM an individual needs to live ‘independantly’

The distinction isn't relevant given that neither rate is enough to live on, unless you are able to access social housing which is below market rate rentals.

Not all jobs carry equal weight in their productivity.... so if you aren't earning enough to live and need UC it's because you don't have the right opportunity or education etc to get the higher paid job

Agree with this. It's great that NLW is increasing, but everyone else above this in a more qualified job are not seeing anywhere near the same increase. The gap is getting smaller, leading me to wonder what on earth is the point of being in a job that requires qualifications/training and possibly more responsibility/stress. They should be raising the rates for these jobs as well.

This is true, though which Govt is meddling with private rented accommodation?

Doubtless they'll take credit for dumping their own policies... whilst at the same time refusing to have min fit for humane habitation rules.

How does that make even the tiniest sense? If you can't earn enough in a 40hr a week job to support yourself (and contribute a tiny bit to a family or whatever commitments you may have) then that job is either needed but not paid enough to exist and the wages need to increase (eg, a bin collector is still needed whether they're educated or not!) as if someone's doing the job they deserve to be paid fairly for it.

Or otherwise the job is totally unnecessary to society and unwanted by sufficient people to keep it going (such as a private business employing someone to sell shit no-one wants for example) so sadly needs to end and why not make it financially unsustainable anyway by upping your salary?

Either way is an argument for a liveable wage.

This really is depressingly low, as a teenager in the late 80's I was on 12k and my friends were on similar. To maintain purchasing power this wage would need to be close to 26k today. And yet the living wage is 20k.

No wonder we are feeling poorer than ever.

But earning £12k wasn't the norm for teenagers in the late 80s, it really wasn't.

I started a job in 1992 that today pays about £23k. I earned £6.5k, which was the norm for many non graduate jobs at the time. To be earning nearly double that a few years earlier suggests that it wasn't an entry level job and today would probably pay £25-30k at least.

Some of the worst accommodation is housing association stock.

Doesn't matter, its still down to the Govt of the day to put this right & they haven't, indeed gone all out to avoid min standards on housing.

@Brianisanaughtyboy those who are on low incomes can claim UC..... if you aren't entitled to UC you don't need it....

Plenty of people get cash benefits and are working full time.

I actually think it's lovely cal councils who are supposed to monitor this not government.

No. Its about one person with an opinion of the Government arguing their point to embarrassment. Dear oh dear, I thought this kind of person went out with Thatcher 😀

Take away Blair’s victories, and Labour has only been in power for 18 of the last 100 years. The Tories, either alone or in coalition, have ruled for the rest

I think you can safely say that most things, whether proposed by Labour or not, have been introduced by the Tories.........

That's rather the point, why should they be on low enough incomes to claim UC or other income benefits (excluding disability for example which obviously only applies to those entitled not the general population) - if you're doing a job that needs doing you should be paid enough to live off to do it.

Govt oversees councils and sets the funding... sorry but if the councils are failing, then its up to Govt to put it right, they set the frame work.

Its not a Left vs Right issue, private renters often got a shit deal under Blair too, they never introduced min standards either.

@Brianisanaughtyboy you are given enough money to live of.....

If you want more, earn more.

You seriously saying a person can't live of the min wage.... shall I show you?

@Brianisanaughtyboy also leave disabled people out of this ffs.

My wording 'excluding disability' was indeed quite literally leaving disabled people out of this, the irony is not lost on me.

Disabled people are one of the groups that can have much higher costs so will need this accounted for, which is why I left them out.

That is exactly what I'm saying, you're completely welcome to show me how it's possible, although it would be more effective to show the living wage foundation seeing as it's them, not me, that have worked out exactly what is needed to live off.

Both parties deserve credit for the success of the Minimum / Living Wage. Labour for introducing it in the first place, against Tory opposition, and the Conservatives for accepting it and increasing it much faster than Labour ever did when they got into government.

There were two Living Wages. One was a campaign for an actual living wage calculated by an organisation. The other one was a kind of rebranded minimum wage.

www.livingwage.org.uk/news/living-wage-foundation-responds-announcement-rise-governments-national-living-wage-2024