About half of British workers earn under £15 hour - new Living Wage?

[Melisha]

At the moment about half of the workforce earns under £15 an hour. We need to increase national minimum wage to £15 an hour, lifting many of the workforce out of poverty.
Do you agree NMW should be £15 an hour?

That's what pisses me off a lot about this group. There seems to be so much job snobbery and contempt for anyone who doesn't at least work in an office. Someone posted in another thread about how you're a failure if you are still on low wages if you're in your 30s upwards. Even being unemployed is seen as a better choice.

That's what pisses me off a lot about this group. There seems to be so much job snobbery and contempt for anyone who doesn't at least work in an office. Someone posted in another thread about how you're a failure if you are still on low wages if you're in your 30s upwards. Even being unemployed is seen as a better choice.

I think the difference is pensions and progression isn’t it really? No barista is going to be getting a nurses or doctors pension or bens.

Where are you getting your information from?

just wrote a huge post and lost it, along with the will to write it all again.
in simple terms it increases the cost of everything and achieves fuck all.
many businesses would not afford any employees and many more would close their doors permanently.
the sad thing at the moment is many people are sitting on benefits as it isn't worth their while to work. If the government looked back to original tax credits to top up low earnings and encourage people to work it would help.
They've ruined the tax credits system and it's at best shambolic now.

The issues isnt wages in this country, its housing/fuel/transport costs

Those are the costs that need government intervention, not wages.

We had inflation jump to over 10% on low wages 🤷‍♀️ You can’t have it both ways

So why wasn’t cost an issue when wages were higher?

I am paid less than that for working in a library. Raising our hourly rate would mean even more incentive to cut jobs and make all libraries unmanned which is the way it's moving anyway. Every day we get people quibbling their 30p fine so I don't think anyone wants to pay for more for keeping essential services.

UC encourages work far more than tax credits did as there is no big "drop off" in benefits like there was with tax credits, also you only had to work 16 hours with tax credits and with UC it's more. I'm a long term claimant who has been on both systems and I much prefer UC, the more I work the better off I am too.

When were wages higher?

Inflation though. As soon as you start paying everyone minimum wage, costs go up obviously and so then do prices ....

A PP was right. It's the large wage gap - inequality - that beeds addressing. When the gap us smaller between rich and poor the economy works well and people are happier.

There is huge inequality of wages but one CEO losing millions would not cover the "worker ants" on NMW getting a huge increase. Inequality SHOULD be addressed but don't think it will free up enough to compensate more than a tiny increase in the wage of the many.

Service industries will die or prices will increase massively to access them in the NMW increases. Starting salaries may increase but then there will be no rise until you have many years of experience and it makes adding responsibility to a role difficult and costly.

You need to consider the wider economy when suggesting economic strategy changes not just "oh, it'll be nicer for nurses starting out"

In good news, Labour are an advocate for the NMW and Rachel Reeves appears to have a handle on what's needed - let's hope she does in reality too. I'm sure if there is scope for an increase it will be on her agenda.

Trouble is that those people would then be in a position to a) demand more money to keep them earning so much more than everyone else and b) would be in positions in work to put prices up of the things they sell/provide/etc because 'they can afford it' - same way that childcare costs go up the moment there's an increase in childcare funding, rents go up when there's an increase in wages, food goes up when people have more income to buy food with...

It just resets the skint barrier another couple of quid higher.

what are you paid per hour op@Melisha

Mumsnet is amazing.

Working people are struggling- shouldn’t NMW be raised?
mumsnetters: absolutely not. Inflationary spiral! Costs passed on! No incentive to be a nurse! (?!)

Working people are struggling- should uc/ in-work benefits be extended?
mumsnetters: Absolutely not. No incentive to work! People reliant on benefits! Country can’t afford scroungers etc etc etc

Alright then lads. What IS the answer? Shall the working class just fucking rot then?

People are going hungry out there the price of everything is ridiculous now.

i earn less than £15 per hour and i am fairly senior in my role
there would be cut backs

Yes higher wages should be an aim for the government.

Two working parents should be able to afford average rent and bills. London is difficult as housing costs are so high, but something needs to be addressed if two working adults can't afford a modest life.

Agreed

Well I don’t know what the answer is but if increasing the NMW means fewer working people needing the state to subsidise them via UC then that is a good thing.

I think companies of a certain size or that earn a certain amount of profit or cash or something should be forced to pay their staff more. Smaller companies should then apply for government support to pay their staff more. So essentially raising the NMW but companies who can’t afford to pay it get subsidised, not people. Probably isn’t workable though and would be open to lots of fraud!

Working people should not be receiving UC top ups to fund corporate greed.

Also agree with PP that costs should be looked at too.

Desirable in theory, but would cause big problems with care homes and nurseries in particular where the costs are driven by hours of minimum wage labour. If you think that private school parents have been kicking up a fuss recently, can you imagine the screams on here if nursery bills leapt by a third? (Assuming wages make up two thirds of nursery overheads and would be increasing by 50%).

Much of that cost would need to be paid for by the state as well, in the form of LA care home costs or UC childcare costs.

I'll leave Rachel Reeves to work out what's manageable.

Please note that I said "original tax credits" which was a transparent system and you knew exactly what you got. No surprise bills for over payments etc. I haven't claimed UC but colleagues do and complain about losing big chunks of money if they work a couple of extra hours etc.
The point I was making is that it's the government that needs to look at this because NMW is just sending costs out of control.

The answer is housing reform not endlessly increasing wages and UC trying to keep up.

UC reduces by 45p for every extra pound you earn so there's no "big chunk" that you lose, it's very straightforward. There's no limit to hours you can work on UC.