Rejecting jobs because they don't pay the living wage

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Where I live minimum wage is £10.75 and the living wage is £12.01.

I honestly find it terrible that any employer can offer under the living wage, defined as the 'minimum amount to allow people the basic opportunities and choices necessary for them to participate in society'.

I won't give my personal circumstances except I've recently left a minimum wage job.

I have something to tide me over until I find next employment with interviews lined up next week. I'm expecting some of the jobs I have interviews for next week to offer minimum wage, so my question is, is it professional/acceptable of me to boldly reject these jobs with the reason being that they aren't offering the living wage and the definition?

Employers are only obligated to pay the national living wage and it is only those employers that sign up to the real living wage that pay more, the £12, which is only around 14,000 businesses in the UK. As this is only voluntary most would only offer national living wage as set by the government however you should be able to find out ahead of applying/interviewing what the rates are ahead of time.

I’m of the same opinion as you basically. It’s ridiculous that we have a situation where people can work full time, still not have enough money to live and have to be topped up by benefits. By all means tell them that the salary is not acceptable to you. I imagine this happens all the time with people at all different salary levels and is not unprofessional.

Madness isn’t it. Sometime working full time in any job shouldn’t be on such a low wage they need to be topped up with benefits.

if you’re asking for more than they’ve advertised the job at they are likely to reject that. They will have a rate of pay for the job and you’re unlikely to be the only person they employ in that job and they can’t pay you more than the others. NLW is going up to £11.44 in April anyway

@Sundaefraise realistically I think that if you can't afford to pay employees the living wage, then you can't afford to have employees.

However, I've found that the employers that I know of (including my last one personally) actually could afford to pay the living wage, but due to that buffer allowed by our government (by having a different legal minimum wage to the living wage), they can get away with paying less.

It baffles me that there is even two amounts - the living wage defined as enough to allow people 'basic opportunities and choices'... yet they then make another 'minimum wage' amount that is lower than this that employers can legally offer.

@HermioneWeasley I'm not in the UK. And employers very rarely give details of pay until a job offer is made.

I guess it depends on how long you can survive on £0 per hour?
Mininium wage is significantly higher than nothing, so how picky about the job do you want to be?

I agree OP. Companies try and get away with what they can, just staying on the right side of the law.

My current employer cry’s poverty all the time, how it cannot afford to pay us a penny above the national minimum wage. They’ve massively cut our workforce, and expect us to pick up the slack. Their payroll costs are less than they were before, because they got rid of people, made more money last year, but say, oh we can’t afford the extra £zzzzz, but they can because they’ve saved by having less staff.

Everyone’s demotivated and off sick, and anyone new they hire on this wage are always rubbish and we have to pick up the slack.

Of course, I’m looking for a new job.

SnowsFalling · Today 15:50
Have you tried living of the minimum wage? Just asking?

You can reject whatever job offer you want for whatever reason. But you can't claim benefits and reject job offers for not paying enough.
Lots of jobs only pay NMW or just above it.

@Slitheringheights My DP earns a tiny bit above NMW. We could not manage just on his wage alone.

Min wage is just under what I earn.
I couldn't last long without an income - hence a job on minimium wage would beat no job.
If you need the income, something is better than nothing.
If you can live without the income (or slready have a job - which the OP says they have just left), you can afford to be more selective about which job you pick.

It really annoys me.

People working full time, being paid minimum wage for a company that is making profits and handing them over the shareholders, meaning that the workers need to claim benefits in order to survive.

How is this acceptable? Taxpayers subsidising the dividend to shareholders. Pay people properly

I think it’s madness that the government doesn’t think that full time minimum wage is enough to live on but then still taxes people who only earn that. And then pays them back benefits! The government could do a lot to simplify the tax and benefits system.

Childfree people on NMW are often not entitled to benefits.

Lots of public services are delivered by contracts to charities who pay MNW or just above.

Well, where are you then?

Why not give us the full story at the beginning?!

Maybe you could emphasise your experience at interviews and try to get a bit more.

It is terrible that soneone of e.g. 40 years old with a family and 20 years experience could be paid the same as a school leaver with no experience.
Maybe target larger companies who have a pay scale?

A quick calculation shows a couple with one child where only one parent works 37.5hrs at NMW (£20,319) could get over £10k a year in benefits (I used my social housing rent for the calculation so private could be a lot more) but only be paying £2,500 in tax & NI.

For their "take home" to break even the employer would need to pay approx £35,000 plus the additional employers NI - when you look at it this way taxpayers are saving business a fortune.

It would be interesting to see how many employees are on NMW & receiving benefits there are for those companies reporting record profits & paying out massive bonuses.

@penjil what full story do you need? I gave you the rate of minimum wage and living wage where I live and asked a general question regarding this... can't see what else is relevant.

Seems to be an employee's market at the moment.

Sainsbury’s puts up wages again as retail staff pay battle continues (talkingretail.com)

I agree with the principle of your point. The only way to beat this system atm is to have desirable skills, and then to negotiate accordingly. A few years ago, my skills came in demand (for the first time in my many years) and so i shopped around for a much better paying job, since my employer at the time was too slow in responding to the labour market. Its a shit world though, generally employees have v little power. Join a union, that usually helps!

Salary is up for negotiation so maybe reject but say you’ll accept if they pay the living wage.

I don't know where you are, as you used GBP but then said you weren't in the UK, but I don't know where £12/hr would be living wage either. And it's only, what an extra £50 a week gross than NMW? So less take home than that.

Can you do anything to increase your earning potential? Ultimately scummy employers are going to pay the minimum they can find employees at, so if you're at the stage of life where you can make yourself more desirable for a higher wage you should do that.

@RoomOfRequirement I was about to type out reasons why I'm already desirable for a higher wage but that would've negated my whole point entirely anyway -- no one should have to push themselves to make themselves professionally 'desirable' JUST to be paid the 'living wage'. To strive beyond, sure, but I find that a horrendous mentality that the average worker should have to make themselves 'desirable' to employers to deserve the minimum amount set to live a basic life. That was my whole point.