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?

This is quite observant. Not for the reasons you think though.
The problem with setting an arbitrary artificial wage floor is some are being paid too much and some too little. This of course includes all skill sets and pay bands. However, minimum wage rewards the useless with the useful. Some on minimum wage are being paid too much for the value and level of service they provide.
So what happens is businesses just cut hrs or introduce zero hrs contracts.

I've clearly said those on a little above MW should also.br raised £1 per hour too.

Yeah that would be nice! However no doubt we would all have to strike in order for them to do anything and even then the increase is shocking.

You were better off if you got the same pay for 3 hours less work.

How do zero hour contracts or less hours mean that people who are not productive suddenly become productive? They do not.
Zero hour contracts are simply a way to make people work unpaid as they are so desperate for the hours. It has been common in some businesses for low paid staff to do some work for free.

Yeah it’s a joke. But presumably if people left the professional it’d kind of force their hand.

(Can’t remember what the rules are in terms of salary for recruiting overseas workers for jobs on the shortage list.)

And look at the thread with multiple people saying they are paid a lot but do very little work. But magically their high wages and skiving does not increase prices.

What makes you think B&M would have you. People talk about check out jobs in such a derogatory manner but it is a frustrating and thankless job.

When NMW went up last time we had people threaten to leave to work in Tesco. They wouldn't have known what had hit them TBH. Even if they got in with no experience

It is ILLEGAL for anybody to be working for free, anybody in any business who is working for less than NMW should be reporting their employers to HMRC. HMRC investigate and the workers get what they are owed.

I fear it maybe a poisoned chalice because yes it's nice to pay £15 per hour but I bet they'll be a huge number of redundancies

30 million extra per week, not per year, obviously. About a billion and a half per year (although that assumes that all the NMW workers are full time, which I suspect isn't the case).

The funniest part is there are probably a lot of women who would be struggling as lower earners if they didn't have their rich husbands but because they see his earnings as "joint earnings" they think they've earned it too.

But then should everyone then get a pay rise if those on lower grades salaries are lifted and are closer to the next grade surely there should be an overall rise or there's no incentive to progress plus people with more responsibility etc should be paid more

That's called being 'hubsidised'.

That's really offensive actually

Some employers already have difficulties filling jobs as those above minimum wage are not paid much more.

@Mrsttcno1 I know, but it is common.

I work in the public sector and despite my qualifications & experience, earn well under £15 per hour & only a few pence over current minimum wage. I have a demanding & responsible job, no chance for a parish and will probably have to start looking elsewhere as cost of living has got so ridiculous. I already have a part time second job which I would love to give up but can't afford to. However, the money for increased wages has to come from somewhere & until government funding is increased towards the public sector, I can't see it happening.

Pay rise, not parish!

There’s one CEO and you need the best. Like it or not many of the staff at the bottom are low skilled and interchangeable. If you start paying them a lot more then they will be replaced by technology.

Also the existing minimum wage is enough to live on. But it depends on your circumstances how good your life will be

It’s not. I was the higher earner in my relationship (I’m a woman) and my ex did not earn a penny of my money: why are men who don’t pay their way “cocklodgers” yet women are not?

There are often lots of senior staff. Have you seen the thread of people talking about being paid a high wage and doing very little work?
And do you live on the minimum wage?

You think working on the checkout is much more difficult than being a nurse? Seriously? I’ve worked on checkouts in several different stores when younger. It’s not that hard

our nurses should not be paid the same as the Costa barista.

This exactly.

Especially when you add in the fact that nurses etc will have the graduate tax aka student loan repayment that many -not all- in NMW jobs won’t have.

There are not lots of senior staff- that’s why they are paid a premium. Very few people outside the public sector are paid high wages with no work. I say that as someone who has worked in both the public and private sectors.

I have in the past lived on the minimum wage yes. I don’t now. It was fine for me then as my costs were lower.

expecting other people to pay you more than you can get at market rates is not a great idea economically. Basically you will likely be replaced by technology or offshore.