NMW to increase again next year to £12.21 ph.

[ZoeZee]

If you’ve not had a pay rise this year, despite bringing it up to your employer, and now there’s set to be another 6% NMW increase next year (which is fantastic, don’t get me wrong) the pay gap is narrowing ever more between skilled/unskilled employees.

Skilled and those with MANY years of experience, might as ditch their responsible/stressful jobs (which often keep you awake at night) and look for something that doesn’t have the added responsibility?

Almost 20 years experience means nothing to some employers! AIBU?

Any employers who have a view on this increase, please let me know how this might affect you and your staff.

The minimum wage has gone up every year and unemployment has pretty much remained the same. What do you expect them to do? Just leave it at current rates ?

@another1bitestheduck If OP comes back and tells us she is in a front-line, essential public service role, I will eat my words. As I said in my post, and to PP since, of course there are all sorts of jobs, including NMW ones, that are very stressful.

Salaries for paramedics and the like should absolutely be higher. But the paramedic will only be on £28k for the first year, no? Then up the scales. NMW jobs have no increments, that’s why the government has to legislate for rises. The paramedic will also have employer pension contributions, sick leave, mat/pay leave and so on. The whole package is worth more than the headline (starting) salary.

But I fundamentally agree with you - many essential jobs are undervalued!

I think a lot of businesses will go under because they won’t be able to pay their staff a fair wage. Good on Labour. It’s wrong that people can work full time and still need tax credits to help them pay basic bills. I appreciate it will be sad times for some companies but if your are not financially viable then why should the state support you to pay low wages.

@Batmanisaplaceinturkey I actually can't believe a gov has never scrapped the right to buy.

Then his pub will go out of business, it is sad for him and the (obviously too few) others who use his pub but unviable businesses can not be propped up by exploitation.

Businesses are not charities, they are run for profit, if that profit drops too low then they go under and if they leave a gap in the market they are replaced.

If they do not then they aren't and we adapt to their loss. The writing's been on the wall for pubs for a while, they just aren't needed or wanted by enough people in the current market.

Personally I like pubs but I understand that they need massive business to keep going, if that business decides it no longer values their product at the price they offer it at then that is just that.

I agree housing needs to be sorted out.

He will not be able to pay staff 12 pounds an hour ( plus 12% holiday pay). So if he can't get 18 year olds to apply he is going to close.

Exactly.
Employers, particularly small businesses, if you don’t pay your staff, a wage enough to live on, rent, council tax, utilities (nurseries, private care homes they pay their staff a pittance, for huge responsibility) the government is then subsidising.
Are people aware, there are more people claiming benefits, who work and some are using food banks.Is this ok! Before someone says, just get a job that has better pay, they’re essential, so who’s going to do them.

We already have since covid. And an increase in pet breeding. And yet no government funding for rescue centres or far more stringent regulation and taxes on breeders. So Joe Public can look.forward to scraping together more pennies for the poor rescue centres that tug on our heartstrings.

Many businesses can't employ under 18s in the same way that they did in the past, because kids have to stay in some sort of education until they are 18. This means the number of kids available to work during most day time working hours is extremely limited. These type of businesses don't want to take on staff as apprentices because they can't necessarily commit to fulfilling the obligations that it creates - not to mention the additional work load. They want staff who can do the job well, rather than put the investiment into training (this isn't just financial, its time consuming).

People seem to forget that kids don't just leave school at 16 in the same way they used to.

Then obviously not enough people want to drink in his pub, as another poster has pointed out. It’s a business. If there’s insufficient demand then it will close.

Lots of the NMW jobs are in the care sector. If we want to encourage people to take these jobs rather than have to find jobseekers from overseas which is what is currently happening, these salaries need to increase. A start is to make the NMW truly a living wage. We can't really afford not to do this.

Alongside the increase I would like to see the taper rate change on UC so that people who need it actually get a shot at earning and keeping a bit of money.

Absolutely

A paramedics starting salary may be that but after 2 years it is usually £35k plus and if you get to the top it can be £75k plus.

A bar persons salary may be £25,396 when they start but 10 years later it will pretty much still be £25,396 plus increases in minimum wage,

if anyone is in a poorly paid job and feels undervalued in relation to what they could be doing for NMW then change jobs. There is nothing stopping anyone if your only criteria is money.

Yes and horse driven taxis were financially viable before the motor car but unfortunately things change and if you are in business you need to adapt or die. I'm sorry this is coming as a shock to you you really should have taken some advice before starting a business if you didn't realise there were risks and uncertainty involved.

If you read my PP, you'll have read 3 pubs have closed in his town. There are 2 left. The locals don't want him to close. But in your opinion 'not enough people want to drink in his pub'. He hosts darts nights, quiz nights, curry nights, Sunday Roasts and does Funerals and other community functions. But who cares about the community eh?

These are recommendations from the Low Pay Commission. They are made in order to keep up with average pay levels so as not to fall too far behind.

As someone who advises SMEs I say hallelujah to this!

Are people really this dumb?

Small businesses aren't the problem.

The treasury are having to raise more money because of a lack of income.

The way that multinationals are structured - legally - by offshoring to reduce their tax liability means they are paying less in tax per employee compared to a small business by some margin.

Its actually small businesses that have been subsidising this practice because they've had to pay more taxes in various different ways, because the government is trying to get that revenue from elsewhere.

Whats happening is that small businesses are no longer viable because the multinationals aren't paying tax £ for £ at anywhere near the same rate. The profits are going to shareholders and foreign owners. The money isn't being recycled within the UK economy - its exiting the UK economy and the country gets poorer as a result.

Small businesses are the engine that drive our economy. A new British based business is of far more value to us as a society than a much larger foreign based one for this reason. They are what allow us to ultimately increase our GDP in the longer term.

We run the risk here to go in a similar direction to Japan with economic stagnation where the bubble burst and in the end wages were forced to reduce. (Remember those import costs aren't going to go down).

Universal credit has had to pick up the difference between a non living wage and just about able to manage. I don’t mind government subsidising a small struggling employer (such as children’s nursery) but subsidising those who then pass on record profits to shareholders is just taking the piss.

Also we shouldn’t be aiming downwards, people are truly financially rogered at the moment (see that sad post the other day regarding endless grinding poverty), something needs to change. £12 an hour is hardly a kings ransom to live on. We need to make work pay again.

The trouble is NMW isn't paid in a bubble.

If you are a student or young person living at home this is probably a good thing.

But for those of us at this level, the reality is that every other cost we pay will go up so what on paper looks good doesn't help in reality. And who is most affected by that, oh yes people on NMW and just above.

I'm sure those that use the pub feel strongly, I would too in their position but they still aren't enough people if his pub is not financially viable, that is just a bare fact. The community of local pub goers is obviously just not large enough or regular enough to support his pub, the demand is just not there.

It's still not a charity and is meant to be run for profit, it's sad that your relative is unable to do this but that doesn't mean that he should be able to exploit cheap labour and pay people wages that very often are not enough to live on and must be subsidised by benefits. I think deep down you know this really but are just caught up with the sympathy for your relative.

I didn’t say it wasn’t useful to the community. But unless they are paying over enough money, it’s not a viable business. That’s how business works.