National minium wage

[B0yMama2]

When I started my job 4 years ago I was on about a £1 more than the national living wage. For context I work in hospitality and have alot of experience within the industry and if it wasn't for working part time I would have been promoted to supervisor but the company only allow full time supervisor roles which I do not want. I have previously been offered supervisor if I was willing to go full time but I have 2 young children nursery age so was a no from me

This morning I get a email stating my new wage with the living wage increase is just 11p more than the national minimum wage

At about 2 years into the company I got a 50p pay rise as they recognised my hard work but then I went on maternity leave and come back with everyone's wages increased with the minimum wage and I was back to on the same as the standard rate they paid for the job

Just a bit annoying and I don't know how to word how I don't feel appreciated for my long service within the company along with dedication and hard work with the email of my new wage this morning. I've never argued a pay before.

Mine did similar- for people who earned a lesser amount, there's is increasing by 56p (still more than minimum wage) but anyone on my hourly wage is staying the same!

Also found out by email and couldn't believe it. As someone said, if there is a differential, that should be maintained!! You get x amount about NMW so when it increases, yours increases by x.

I know I can Google but it tends to only say hourly rate etc. How much per year salary approx is NMW these days?

Just under 19k

And care homes, a couple of people I know have given up catering at restaurants, weddings and conferences and moved to care homes. Better money and better hours.

I don't even know what mine is going up to yet.. obviously has to be living wage, but currently 50p and hour above the current living wage. It's still a extra 50p per hour increase, even if it is just to the increased living wage.
The only thing that annoys me is that it's nearly April 1st and no one where I work has been told what their wages will be yet 🙄

DS often works as a chef in a very upmarket hotel. The rate for a CdP (his grade) is currently £11.50 ph, but with the increase in NMW (unless the rate for CdP rises too) it will be the same 11pph difference as the OPs.

We're never told what our pay increase will be until a few days before we get paid at the end of April, my husbands place of work is the same.
Not on min wage but not much above either.
Fully expecting with the large increase this year that my wage at least, will just become the new living wage anyway

I am currently going through all of this but as an employer!
If I pay my staff the percentage over the minimum wage they should get based on what they have been getting the past few years, my business probably will not survive.
So it is honestly not always just a case that an employer is being unfair it could be with smaller businesses just not being able to afford it.

Real living wage goes up to 12 gross for outside London

Those in hospitality that are open to moving jobs - maybe consider real living wage Employers

Some Employers that are / were real living wage Employers - have decided not to be from april 1st

Depends on how many hours pw.
From April 2024 FT on NMW @£11.44 ph, I calculate
35hrs pw = £20,820 pa
40hrs pw = £23,795 pa

But the domestics, catering etc usually from the hospitality sector are via agency (Compass/Medirest) and get good enhancements and access to a better pension. Two of my DD's have jumped ship and many more are. The opportunities for job swap/share and progression is good in our region. If your staff are getting 1p over minium wage then the union should be on to it. That's for those not employed by the NHS. Although it's ridiculous that the domestic roles pay more than HCAs.

We are having same issue at my place. I took a slight pay cut but was enough. This year we aren't getting a pay rise until July (4%) and this will put us on pretty much minimum wage. If I had stayed at my old job I would be on around £4 more p/h now. We have had all our benefits stopped too but pretty sure all managers are receiving still. They had a sign in reception saying proud to pay above living wage.

@Ponoka7 not all trusts employ domestics/catering/portering via agency. The trust I work for doesn't. Most of them are on NHS contracts and only some are on IIS 'Level 1' contracts. Which is not an agency. Plus these IIS contracts are mostly 'flexible' i.e. zero hours and the same pay and conditions and NHS employees. No special extra enhancements or pay you speak of. The point I was obviously making is that band 2's are on 1p over minimum wage so suggesting an NHS role for the OP doesn't solve their issue. And actually they would likely be paid even less than they already are.

They are not 'my staff'. This pay is nationwide, unless working in London. If you really think 'the unions should get onto it' is a reasonable statement about NHS pay then you have no idea how the government and the NHS Pay review body works.

I've got a degree, a Masters degree, years of experience in my field and earn about 75p over NMW - work in education in Public sector, absolutely no more money available and I feel very pissed off too that it's such shit pay, and someone with nowhere near my qualifications or experience can come in & earn almost my wage. Positive points are that I really love my job. Yes, I could probably earn more elsewhere but I don't want to!

I'm not talking about NHS employees. The OP didn't state were she lives. I'm in the NW, the hospitals are a good gig for those in hospitality etc. It's £17 an hour when on enhancement, sick pay, holiday pay, good pension scheme, in work perks. The job might not look great if you've got a nursing etc degree but compared to a bar/pizza hut etc job, for those with exam passes to the equivalent of food hygiene etc It's good employment. I just suggested looking what us available and using it as a bargaining point. If it's as shit everywhere then there's nowhere to go with it.

The minimum wage increase impact to our business is £1.6m, and customers are unwilling to accept signifiant price increases. We certainly couldn’t afford to increase everyone’s salary by 10%, but we have taken what I think is a reasonable approach in the circumstances. Minimum wage goes up 10%, and our ‘standard’ pay rise for others is 4%. But it’s staged for the lower paid. So anyone under £30k got 10%. Anyone under £35k got 7.5%. Anyone under £40k got 5%. And then 4% for everyone else, with a few teaks on the margins so make sure that someone on, say, £29.5k didn’t end up being made more than some who was on £30k before, if that makes sense.

One of the unintended consequence of the massive expansion in graduates without sufficient investment/incentives to develop skilled jobs has been the stagnation of salaries in the middle as graduate jobs become less and less relevant from a salary differential perspective.

I started work in ‘93 as a graduate on £16.5k (including outer London weighting) when average earnings were less than £18k. So I started on more than 90% of the average. By 2003 the average graduate starting salary was £20k when average earnings were £25k - 20% less than average. By 2023 the average starting salary for a grad was only £26k when average earning were £35k - 25% less.

I have more than one job and they pay different amounts depending on skills, qualifications responsibility etc. My minimum wage job is rapidly gaining on one of the others jobs. The issue is, its actually less stressful and before i felt the additional stress was worth the extra pay in job number 2, but i'm now thinking that its not.

I don't follow. If you're not a supervisor, irrespective of whether you think you could be, then why would you expect to be paid as one?

I totally agree. We are going up to £12ph, thats working in a supermarket. The Team Leaders will be on about £13.25, which is ok i think. It's ridiculous that skilled jobs with qualifications are getting the same as what we are.

The issue we are going to have though soon though is that the store is going to have a cut hours (guess that's what putting minimum wage up does). Thankfully I have an almost full time contract or I'd be rather worried.

We are finding this a real issue at our company. The increase in NMW has brought all the entry level employees so close to some of the more experienced (factory workers).

This is quite an issue for other staff, it would quite literally send the company to the wall if we gave raises across the board to keep it 'fair'

In my experience you only get decent payrises if you move companies

4 years, is that considered long service these days?

One of the issues with min wage is companies will standardise pay to suit the government mandated level. Because some aren't worth the min wage, yet everyone is paid the same regardless of value and output.
Welcome to one of the clear outcomes of the min wage concept.

It's getting more difficult every year to maintain parity between the entry level hourly rate and supervisors. My company has entry > supervisor/ skilled labour > manager > senior manager. We have 130 staff. It's not sustainable especially in our industry where sales price is affected by massive downward pressure from tenders and huge multi billion pound companies, which are squeezing small manufacturers to the brink. Trust me when I say the decision makers are aware and don't like it either, many of us have worked our way up from entry level and our salaries are not increasing, only the hourly paid staff and the supervisors are getting anything at all. The result of this will be businesses closing, not all businesses can recoup the increase in the sales price and many are only just turning a profit again after covid.

The differential should have been maintained with each increase, but you would need a contract that states NMW + 50p to be able to enforce it.

I run payroll for several businesses and all of them increase pay accordingly, so if NMW goes up £1.02 then everyone goes up £1.02 even if already over NMW per hour. or it could be as above NMW + extra 50pph.